The 63rd Palamcottah Light Infantry was an infantry 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 ...

. The regiment could trace its origins to 1759, when it was raised as the 4th Battalion Coast Sepoys.

History

One of the oldest regiments in the British Indian Army, the Palamcottah Light Infantry took part in the

Carnatic Wars The Carnatic Wars were a series of military conflicts in the middle of the 18th century in India's coastal Carnatic region, a dependency of Hyderabad State, India. Three Carnatic Wars were fought between 1744 and 1763. The conflicts involved n ...

, the

Battle of Sholinghur The Battle of Sholinghur was fought on 27 September 1781 at Sholinghur, West of Chennai (Madras), between forces of the Kingdom of Mysore led by Hyder Ali and East India Company forces led by General Eyre Coote. Haider Ali's forces were surpris ...

in the

Second Anglo-Maratha War } The Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803–1805) was the second conflict between the British East India Company and the Maratha Empire in India. Background The British had supported the "fugitive" Peshwa Raghunathrao in the First Anglo-Maratha War, ...

, the

Battle of Mahidpur The Battle of Mahidpur was fought during the Third Anglo-Maratha War between the Holkar faction of the Maratha Confederacy and the British East India Company at Mahidpur, a town in the Malwa region, on 21 December 1817. On 21 December 1817, th ...

in the

Third Anglo-Mysore War The Third Anglo-Mysore War (1790–1792) was a conflict in South India between the Kingdom of Mysore and the British East India Company, the Kingdom of Travancore, the Maratha Empire, and the Nizam of Hyderabad. It was the third of four Anglo- ...

, and the Battle of Ava in the

Second Anglo-Burmese War The Second Anglo-Burmese War or the Second Burma War ( my, ဒုတိယ အင်္ဂလိပ် မြန်မာ စစ် ; 5 April 185220 January 1853) was the second of the Anglo-Burmese Wars, three wars fought between the Konbaung dy ...

. They were then sent to China as part 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 ...

forces that took part in suppressing 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 ...

, although without seeing active service.

Recruitment basis

After 1902 the basis of recruitment for most of the Madras regiments of the Indian Army shifted to the "martial races" of the Punjab and other northern regions. The Palamcottah Light Infantry however continued to be recruited in southern India. In 1914 four of its eight companies were Madrasi Muslims, two were Tamils and the remainder Parayans and Christian Madrasis. The regiment had about 13 British officers and 17 Indian officers. The India Army List dated October 1914 records the 63rd Light Infantry as sharing a regimental centre at

Trichinopoly Tiruchirappalli () ( formerly Trichinopoly in English), also called Tiruchi or Trichy, is a major tier II city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Tiruchirappalli district. The city is credited with bein ...

with the

61st Pioneers The 61st Pioneers were an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. They trace their origins to, when they were raised as the 1st Battalion Coast Sepoys. History The regiment took part in the Carnatic Wars in 1746–1763 and then the Third ...

, the 64th Pioneers and the 83rd Light Infantry. Under the system of "linked battalions" in force at the time the 63rd shared recruits with any of the other regiments listed, according to individual unit needs.

World War I

During

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 ...

the regiment initially remained in India on internal security duties as part of the

5th (Mhow) Division The 5th (Mhow) Division was a regular division of the British Indian Army and part of the Southern Army which was formed in 1903 after Lord Kitchener was appointed Commander-in-Chief, India between 1902 and 1909. He instituted large-scale re ...

. In October 1914 the Palamcottah Light Infantry moved to

British East Africa East Africa Protectorate (also known as British East Africa) was an area in the African Great Lakes occupying roughly the same terrain as present-day Kenya from the Indian Ocean inland to the border with Uganda in the west. Controlled by Britai ...

as part of the

Indian Expeditionary Force B The Indian Army during World War I was involved World War I. Over one million Indian troops served overseas, of whom 62,000 died and another 67,000 were wounded. In total at least 74,187 Indian soldiers died during the war. In World War I the ...

. It was part of the British landing force defeated by German colonial troops at the

Battle of Tanga The Battle of Tanga, sometimes also known as the Battle of the Bees, was the unsuccessful attack by the British Indian Expeditionary Force "B" under Major General A. E. Aitken to capture German East Africa (the mainland portion of present-day T ...

. At an early stage in the landing the regiment disintegrated when it came under heavy fire from the 6th Field Company of German

askari An askari (from Somali, Swahili and Arabic , , meaning "soldier" or "military", which also means "police" in the Somali language) was a local soldier serving in the armies of the European colonial powers in Africa, particularly in the African G ...

s. Of 762 officers and men present at Tanga, the 63rd Light Infantry lost 85 killed, wounded and missing. It spent the remainder of the War on lines of communication service in East Africa before returning to India.

Disbandment

After World War I the Indian Army was restructured with the infantry moving from single battalion regiments to multi-battalion regiments. Following the allocation of individual battalions to the twenty new "large" regiments the nine remaining single battalion regiments were disbanded. These included the 63rd Palamcottah Light Infantry, which ceased to exist on 13 September 1922.

Lineage

*4th Battalion Coast Sepoys - 1759 *4th Carnatic Battalion - 1769 *3rd Carnatic Battalion - 1779 *3rd Madras Battalion - 1784 *1st Battalion, 3rd Madras Native Infantry - 1796 *3rd Madras Native Infantry (Palamcottah Light Infantry) - 1812 *3rd Madras Native Light Infantry - 1885 *63rd (Palamcottah) Madras Light Infantry - 1901 *63rd Palamcottah Light Infantry - 1903

Insignia and Uniform

The Palamcottah Light Infantry had the usual bugle horn badge of

light infantry Light infantry refers to certain types of lightly equipped infantry throughout history. They have a more mobile or fluid function than other types of infantry, such as heavy infantry or line infantry. Historically, light infantry often fought ...

regiments, in brass with the number 63 in the curl of the bugle and a crown above. The

full dress uniform Full dress uniform, also known as a ceremonial dress uniform or parade dress uniform, is the most formal type of uniforms used by military, police, fire and other public uniformed services for official parades, ceremonies, and receptions, inclu ...

worn in 1910 included a scarlet ''kurta'' (long skirted coat) with emerald green facings and dark blue breeches. Turban and

puttees A puttee (also spelled ''puttie'', adapted from the Hindi '' paṭṭī'', meaning "bandage") is a covering for the lower part of the leg from the ankle to the knee, alternatively known as: legwraps, leg bindings, winingas, or Wickelbänder. The ...

were khaki.

References

Sources

* * * *Moberly, F.J. (1923). ''Official History of the War: Mesopotamia Campaign'', Imperial War Museum. {{ISBN, 1-870423-30-5 British Indian Army infantry regiments Military history of the Madras Presidency Military units and formations established in 1759 Military units and formations disestablished in 1922 Military units and formations of the Boxer Rebellion