The 103rd Regiment of Foot (Royal Bombay Fusiliers) was a regiment raised in 1662. It transferred to the command of the Honourable East India Company in 1668 and to the command of the British Army in 1862. Under the

Childers Reforms The Childers Reforms of 1881 reorganised the infantry regiments of the British Army. The reforms were done by Secretary of State for War Hugh Childers during 1881, and were a continuation of the earlier Cardwell Reforms. The reorganisation was ...

it amalgamated with the

102nd Regiment of Foot (Royal Madras Fusiliers) The 102nd Regiment of Foot (Royal Madras Fusiliers) was a regiment of the British Army raised by the Honourable East India Company in 1742. It transferred to the command of the British Army in 1862. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with t ...

to form the Royal Dublin Fusiliers in 1881.

History

Formation

The regiment was originally raised in England as independent companies of European soldiers to garrison Bombay in February 1662. It embarked for India later that year and was transferred to the Honourable East India Company as The Bombay Regiment in March 1668. In 1688 it was renamed The Bombay (European) Regiment – "European" indicating it was composed of white soldiers, not Indian

sepoy ''Sepoy'' () was the Persian-derived designation originally given to a professional Indian infantryman, traditionally armed with a musket, in the armies of the Mughal Empire. In the 18th century, the French East India Company and its oth ...

s. The regiment saw action at the

Battle of Plassey The Battle of Plassey was a decisive victory of the British East India Company over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies on 23 June 1757, under the leadership of Robert Clive. The victory was made possible by the defection of Mir Jafar, ...

in June 1757 during the Seven Years' War. It also fought at the

Battle of Buxar The Battle of Buxar was fought between 22 and 23 October 1764, between the forces under the command of the British East India Company, led by Hector Munro, and the combined armies of Mir Qasim, Nawab of Bengal till 1764; the Nawab of Awadh, Sh ...

in October 1764 during the Oude Campaign. It next saw action at the siege of Seringapatam in February 1792 during the Third Anglo-Mysore War. It fought at the Battle of Seedaseer in March 1799 and the siege of Seringapatam in April 1799 during the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War.

Early nineteenth century

The regiment fought at the Battle of Khadki in November 1817 during the Third Anglo-Maratha War.Sumner, p. 5, 26–28 It then embarked for the

Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...

in October 1820 and saw action in operations against Omani pirates at

Jalan Bani Bu Ali Jalan Bani Bu Ali () is a commercial town and tourist destination in Oman. There are many shops and supermarkets, but most famous is the traditional souq. This suq is in the south of the town about 1km from the centre and is open on Friday morn ...

in March 1821.

The Victorian era

The regiment took part in the Conquest of

Aden Aden ( ar, عدن ' Yemeni: ) is a city, and since 2015, the temporary capital of Yemen, near the eastern approach to the Red Sea (the Gulf of Aden), some east of the strait Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000 people. ...

in 1839 and was then renumbered as the 1st Bombay (European) Regiment later in the year (on the creation of the 2nd Bombay (European) Regiment), and designated the 1st Bombay (European) Fusiliers in 1844. It took part in the siege of Multan in April 1848 and the Battle of Gujrat in February 1849 during the Second Anglo-Sikh War. It also fought at various skirmishes during the

Indian Rebellion 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 for ...

. After the Crown took control of the Presidency armies in the aftermath of the Mutiny, the regiment became the 1st Bombay Fusiliers in November 1859 and then the 1st Royal Bombay Fusiliers in May 1861. It was then renumbered as the 103rd Regiment of Foot (Royal Bombay Fusiliers) on transfer to the British Army in September 1862. The regiment arrived in England in February 1871. As part of the

Cardwell Reforms The Cardwell Reforms were a series of reforms of the British Army undertaken by Secretary of State for War Edward Cardwell between 1868 and 1874 with the support of Liberal prime minister William Ewart Gladstone. Gladstone paid little attention ...

of the 1870s, where single-battalion regiments were linked together to share a single depot and recruiting district in the United Kingdom, the 103rd was linked with the

, and assigned to district no. 66 at Naas Barracks in

County Kildare County Kildare ( ga, Contae Chill Dara) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the local authority for the county, ...

. On 1 July 1881 the

came into effect and the regiment amalgamated with the 102nd Regiment of Foot (Royal Madras Fusiliers) to form the Royal Dublin Fusiliers.

Battle honours

The regiment received the following battle honours granted by the Honourable East India Company:

Distinctions

In 1844 the regiment was granted a number of honorary distinctions recording its past service. The awards were made by the Governor-General of India on 6 November 1844 in the following terms: "With the approval of the Right Honourable the Governor-General of India in Council, the Honourable the Governor in Council is pleased to direct, that the honorary distinctions specified below be borne upon the Colours and appointments of the 1st Bombay European Regiment, Fusiliers":Mainwaring (1911), p. 376 *The Royal Tiger, superscribed ''Plassey'' and ''Buxar'', for services in the Presidency of Bengal, during 1757 and 1764-1765, especially at the battles of Plassey and Buxar and the sieges of Chandernagore, Chunar, and

Allahabad Allahabad (), officially known as Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi (Benares). It is the administrat ...

. *The Elephant superscribed ''Carnatic'' and ''Mysore'', for services on the Coromandel Coast, in the Carnatic and Mysore, during the years 1747-8-9; 1754-5, 1760, 1764 and 1788, especially as having shared in the defence of Cuddalore (Fort St David), 16 June 1748, the operations under Admiral Boscawen, and the siege of Davi Cottah, the latter part of this and the beginning of the following year; the action with the French Army under Monsieur Maisin, between the Sugar Loaf and French Rocks on 16 August 1754, the sieges of Pondicherry and Mihie 1760-1; the sieges of Madura and Palamcottah in 1764; the storming of the Bednore Ghauts and Capture of Bednore in 1783, and the expedition in the first campaign against Seringapatam in 1790-1-2. * Guzerat for service at several different periods; especially throughout the whole of General Goddard's Campaign, with the Bengal Brigade in 1780, and the storming of

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ; Gujarati: Amdavad ) is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 (per t ...

, 15 January 1780.

Regimental colonels

Colonels of the Regiment were: *1862–1873: Lt-Gen. Joseph Hale *1873–1881: Gen. Sir William Wyllie, GCB

Notes

References

Sources

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