The 23rd Sikh Pioneers were a regiment of the

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 ...

. They could trace their origins to 1857, when they were known as the 15th (Pioneer) Regiment of Punjab Infantry. The regiment recruited the

Mazhabi Mazhabi Sikh (also known as Mazbhabi, Mazbhi, Majhabhi or Majabhi) is a community from Northern India, especially Punjab region, who follow Sikhism. The word ''Mazhabi'' is derived from the Arabic term ''mazhab'' (Mazhab means religion or sect ...

Sikhs Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism (Sikhi), a monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ...

and Ramdasia Sikhs of Punjab province. Despite being Pioneers by name, the regiment was specially trained as

Assault Pioneer An Assault Pioneer is an infantry soldier who is responsible for: * The construction of tools for infantry soldiers to cross natural and man-made obstacles as well as breaching of enemy fortifications; * Supervising the construction of field defe ...

Brief History

They took part in the

Battle of Taku Forts (1858) The First Battle of Taku Forts () was the first attack of the Anglo-French alliance against the Taku Forts along the Hai River in Tianjin, China, on 20 May 1858, during the Second Opium War. The British and French sent a squadron of gunboats, ...

, the

Battle of Taku Forts (1860) The Third Battle of Taku Forts () was an engagement of the Second Opium War, part of the British and French 1860 expedition to China. It took place at the Taku Forts (also called Peiho Forts) near Tanggu District ( Wade-Giles: Pei Tang-Ho), ap ...

and the

Battle of Palikao The Battle of Palikao (french: La bataille de Palikao; ) was fought at the bridge of Palikao by Anglo-French forces against the Qing Empire during the Second Opium War on the morning of 21 September 1860. It allowed Western forces to take the c ...

in the

Second Opium War The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Sino War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a colonial war lasting from 1856 to 1860, which pitted the British Empire and the French Emp ...

. This was followed by the

1868 Expedition to Abyssinia The British Expedition to Abyssinia was a rescue mission and punitive expedition carried out in 1868 by the armed forces of the British Empire against the Ethiopian Empire (also known at the time as Abyssinia). Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia, t ...

a punitive expedition carried out by the armed forces of the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

against the

Ethiopian Empire The Ethiopian Empire (), also formerly known by the exonym Abyssinia, or just simply known as Ethiopia (; Amharic and Tigrinya: ኢትዮጵያ , , Oromo: Itoophiyaa, Somali: Itoobiya, Afar: ''Itiyoophiyaa''), was an empire that historical ...

and Emperor

Tewodros II of Ethiopia , spoken = ; ''djānhoi'', lit. ''"O steemedroyal"'' , alternative = ; ''getochu'', lit. ''"Our master"'' (pl.) Tewodros II ( gez, ዳግማዊ ቴዎድሮስ, baptized as Gebre Kidan; 1818 – 13 April 1868) was Emperor of Ethiop ...

. They next took part in the

Battle of Peiwar Kotal The Battle of Peiwar Kotal was fought on 2 December 1878 between British forces under Major General Frederick Roberts and Afghan forces under Karim Khan, during the opening stages of the Second Anglo-Afghan War. The British were victorious, and ...

, the Battle of Charasiab in the

Second 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 ...

in 1878. In 1903, they took part in the

British expedition to Tibet The British expedition to Tibet, also known as the Younghusband expedition, began in December 1903 and lasted until September 1904. The expedition was effectively a temporary invasion by British Indian Armed Forces under the auspices of the ...

an invasion of Tibet by British Indian forces, seeking to prevent the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

from interfering in Tibetan affairs. After World War I, the Indian government reformed the army moving from single battalion regiments to multi battalion regiments.Sumner p.15 In 1922, the 23rd Sikh Pioneers now became the 1st Battalion,

3rd Sikh Pioneers The 3rd Sikh Pioneers was a regiment of the British Indian Army formed in 1922, when the Indian army moved from single battalion regiments to multi-battalion regiments. The 3rd Sikh Pioneers were one of four Pioneer units in the 1922 reorganisation ...

, they were renamed again in 1929, as the

Corps of Sikh Pioneers Corps (; plural ''corps'' ; from French , from the Latin "body") is a term used for several different kinds of organization. A military innovation by Napoleon I, the formation was first named as such in 1805. The size of a corps varies great ...

, which was disbanded in 1933. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the regiment was reformed and named the

Sikh Light Infantry The Sikh Light Infantry is a light infantry regiment of the Indian Army.Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

after independence.

Colonels of the regiment

*His Majesty

King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria a ...

- Colonel-in-Chief 1904

Previous names

*23rd Bengal Native Infantry - 1861 *23rd (Punjab) Bengal Native Infantry (Pioneers) - 1864 *23rd (Punjab) Bengal Infantry (Pioneers) - 1885 *23rd Punjab Pioneers - 1901

References

* * British Indian Army infantry regiments Military units and formations established in 1857 1857 establishments in India {{BritishIndia-mil-stub