The 5th Cavalry was a military unit 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 ...

. The regiment was raised at

Bareilly Bareilly () is a city in Bareilly district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is among the largest metropolises in Western Uttar Pradesh and is the centre of the Bareilly division as well as the historical region of Rohilkhand. The city ...

as the 7th Irregular Cavalry in 1841 as a result of the

First Afghan War The First Anglo-Afghan War ( fa, جنگ اول افغان و انگلیس) was fought between the British Empire and the Emirate of Kabul from 1838 to 1842. The British initially successfully invaded the country taking sides in a succession di ...

. In 1861 it was renamed the 5th Regiment of Bengal Cavalry. The pre-

Indian Mutiny of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against Company rule in India, the rule of the East India Company, British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the The Crown, British ...

Bengal Light Cavalry regiments had been lost to mutiny or disbandment leaving the number free. In 1901 it was 5th Bengal Cavalry. When Lord Kitchener became

Commander-in-Chief, India During the period of the Company rule in India and the British Raj, the Commander-in-Chief, India (often "Commander-in-Chief ''in'' or ''of'' India") was the supreme commander of the British Indian Army. The Commander-in-Chief and most of his ...

he undertook to complete the unification of the armies of India, the various Presidency army regiments were renumbered into a more cohesive sequence. The Bengal regiments took the first 19 numbers with the result that the regiment was renamed simply as 5th Cavalry in 1903. The regiment amalgamated with the

8th Lancers The 8th Lancers was (until 1922) one of the 39 cavalry regiments of the British Indian Army. It had originally been part of the army of the East India Company before passing into the reorganised Bengal Army of the post-Mutiny period and ultimately i ...

in 1922 to form the 3rd Cavalry.

References

*Kempton, C (1996). ''A Register of Titles of the Units of the H.E.I.C. & Indian Armies 1666-1947.'' Bristol: British Empire & Commonwealth Museum. *Gaylor, J (1992). ''Sons of John Company: The Indian and Pakistan Armies 1903- 1991.'' Stroud: Spellmount Publishers Ltd. Military units and formations established in 1841 British Indian Army cavalry regiments Honourable East India Company regiments Indian World War I regiments 1841 establishments in British India {{India-mil-unit-stub