The 17th Infantry (The Loyal Regiment) was an infantry regiment of the
Bengal Army
The Bengal Army was the army of the Bengal Presidency, one of the three presidencies of British India within the British Empire.
The presidency armies, like the presidencies themselves, belonged to the East India Company (EIC) until the Govern ...
, later of the united
British Indian Army
The British Indian Army, commonly referred to as the Indian Army, was the main military of the British Raj before its dissolution in 1947. It was responsible for the defence of the British Indian Empire, including the princely states, which co ...
. It was formed at
Phillour in 1858 by
Major
Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...
J. C. Innes from men of the 3rd, 36th and 61st
Bengal Native Infantry
The regiments of Bengal Native Infantry, alongside the regiments of Bengal European Infantry, were the regular infantry components of the East India Company's Bengal Army from the raising of the first Native battalion in 1757 to the passing int ...
regiments who remained loyal to the
British East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...
during the
Indian Mutiny
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the fo ...
, and designated ''The Loyal Purbiah Regiment''.
[''Quarterly Indian Army List January'' 1919, p. 1086]
It was subsequently re-designated as follows:-
*17th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry – 1861
*17th (The Loyal Purbiah) Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry – 1864
*17th (The Loyal Purbiah) Regiment of Bengal Infantry –1885
*17th (The Loyal Regiment) of Bengal Infantry – 1898
*17th Musalman Rajput Infantry (The Loyal Regiment) – 1902
Its final designation came in 1903 with the
Kitchener reforms
The British Indian Army, commonly referred to as the Indian Army, was the main military of the British Raj before its dissolution in 1947. It was responsible for the defence of the British Indian Empire, including the princely states, which cou ...
of the Indian Army.
[
The regiment took part in the ]Second Anglo-Afghan War
The Second Anglo-Afghan War (Dari: جنگ دوم افغان و انگلیس, ps, د افغان-انګرېز دويمه جګړه) was a military conflict fought between the British Raj and the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1878 to 1880, when the l ...
, the Battle of Tofrek
The Battle of Tofrek was fought on 22 March 1885 some 5 miles inland from the port of Suakin on the Red Sea coast of Sudan. A contingent of some 3000 troops from the British and Indian "Suakin Field Force" led by Major General Sir John Carstair ...
the siege of Suakin
Suakin or Sawakin ( ar, سواكن, Sawákin, Beja: ''Oosook'') is a port city in northeastern Sudan, on the west coast of the Red Sea. It was formerly the region's chief port, but is now secondary to Port Sudan, about north.
Suakin used to b ...
in the Sudan Campaign
The Mahdist War ( ar, الثورة المهدية, ath-Thawra al-Mahdiyya; 1881–1899) was a war between the Mahdist Sudanese of the religious leader Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah, who had proclaimed himself the "Mahdi" of Islam (the "Guided On ...
and World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. During World War I they were part of the 22nd (Lucknow) Brigade
The Lucknow Brigade was an infantry brigade of the British Indian Army formed in 1907 as a result of the Kitchener Reforms. It was mobilized as 22nd (Lucknow) Brigade at the outbreak of the First World War as part of Indian Expeditionary Force ...
, first attached to the 8th Lucknow Division
The 8th (Lucknow) Division was a formation of the British Indian Army's Northern Army that was first formed as a result of the Kitchener reforms of the Indian Army in 1903. The Division remained in India on internal security duties during World ...
in India on internal security duties the brigade was then transferred to Egypt as part of the 11th Indian Division
The 11th Indian Division was an infantry Division (military), division of the British Indian Army during World War I. It was formed in December 1914 with two infantry brigades already in Egypt and a third formed in January 1915. After taking p ...
.
After World War I the infantry of the Indian Army was restructured by the mass amalgamation of single battalion units into a smaller number of multi-battalion regiments. The 17th Infantry was one of nine regiments disbanded in 1922, as a result of this reform.[Sumner p .15]
References
*
*''Quarterly Indian Army List January 1919'', Army Headquarters, India. Calcutta, 1919.
*
British Indian Army infantry regiments
Honourable East India Company regiments
Military units and formations established in 1858
1858 establishments in India
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