The Hong Kong Regiment was a

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 ...

regiment

seconded In deliberative bodies a second to a proposed motion is an indication that there is at least one person besides the mover that is interested in seeing the motion come before the meeting. It does not necessarily indicate that the seconder favors th ...

to the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

intended to form part of the garrison of

British Hong Kong Hong Kong was a colony and later a dependent territory of the British Empire from 1841 to 1997, apart from a period of occupation under the Japanese Empire from 1941 to 1945 during the Pacific War. The colonial period began with the Briti ...

between 1891 and 1902. It was disbanded in 1902 following a request from the

India Office The India Office was a British government department established in London in 1858 to oversee the administration, through a Viceroy and other officials, of the Provinces of India. These territories comprised most of the modern-day nations of I ...

owing to the cost of the regiment.

History

The Hong Kong Regiment was created as a result of an 1886 recommendation for an extra battalion to join the

Hong Kong Military Service Corps The Hong Kong Military Service Corps (HKMSC) (Traditional Chinese: 香港軍事服務團) was a British army unit and part of the British garrison in Hong Kong (see British Forces Overseas Hong Kong). Throughout the history of Hong Kong, it has ...

in garrisoning Hong Kong. The regiment was recruited by the British Indian Army from native Indians from Upper India and the regiment was seconded to the British Army. They first arrived in Hong Kong in 1892. Upon arrival, they received authorisation from their British officers to help with the funding and rebuilding of the Kowloon Mosque for the "Mohammedans of Upper India". The soldiers of the Hong Kong Regiment received high praise on their standards of drill and soldiering. The first recruits were apparently so good at firing that the Commandant of the

School of Musketry The Small Arms School Corps (SASC) is a small corps of the British Army, established in 1853 by Lord Hardinge. Its personnel provide advice and instruction to infantry weapon trainers throughout the army, in order to maintain proficiency in th ...

said there was "little we could teach them". A report in ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' described it as a "Swagger Regiment", and the

Commander-in-Chief of the Forces The Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, later Commander-in-Chief, British Army, or just the Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C), was (intermittently) the professional head of the English Army from 1660 to 1707 (the English Army, founded in 1645, was suc ...

, Lord Roberts praised them highly during their first inspection, which was commonly repeated by the

Governors of Hong Kong The governor of Hong Kong was the representative of the British Crown in Hong Kong from 1843 to 1997. In this capacity, the governor was president of the Executive Council and commander-in-chief of the British Forces Overseas Hong Kong. ...

. In 1897 the regiment was deployed to suppress disturbances in the newly acquired

New Territories The New Territories is one of the three main regions of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of Hong Kong. Historically, it ...

. Khaki drill was worn for ordinary duties (see photo above) but a scarlet and blue full dress uniform was authorised for cold-weather ceremonial. The regiment saw action during the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...

and was a main part of the relief of

Peking } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

. However in 1902, the India Office demanded that the regiment be disbanded owing to the cost of maintaining them, as the soldiers were better paid than other regiments of the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...

and as a result were able to select which recruits they took on. This request was accepted, with the regiment's soldiers being transferred to the newly renamed

67th Punjabis The 67th Punjabis were an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. They could trace their origins to 1759, when they were raised as the 8th Battalion Coast Sepoys. The regiment's first action was during the Carnatic Wars followed by the Thir ...

. Their colours were laid up at

St John's Cathedral :''This list is for St. John the Evangelist Cathedrals. For St. John the Baptist Cathedrals, see St. John the Baptist Cathedral (disambiguation)'' St. John's Cathedral, St. John Cathedral, or Cathedral of St. John, or other variations on the name ...

, Hong Kong, though they were later lost during the

Japanese occupation of Hong Kong The Imperial Japanese occupation of Hong Kong began when the Governor of Hong Kong, Mark Aitchison Young, Sir Mark Young, surrendered the British Crown colony of British Hong Kong, Hong Kong to the Empire of Japan on 25 December 1941. The surr ...

References

{{Reflist British Indian Army infantry regiments 1891 establishments in the British Empire 1902 disestablishments in the British Empire History of Hong Kong Military of Hong Kong under British rule British Army deployments