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MEN-AT-ARMS SERIES

E D I T O R : P H I L I P WARNER

30th

Punjabis

Text by

JAMES LAWFORD, MC, MA

Colour plates by

M I C H A E L Y O U E N S

OSPREY PUBLISHING L I M I T E D

Published in 1972

Osprey Publishing

707 Oxford R o a d ,

Ltd, P . O . Box 25,

Reading, Berkshire

Osprey Publishing Ltd

This book is copyrighted under the Berne

fair dealing for the purpose of private study,

research, criticism or review, as permitted under the

m a y be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,

electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photo-

copying, recording or otherwise, without the prior

permission of the copyright owner. Enquiries should

be addressed to the Publishers.

SBN 85045 061 6

Printed in Great Britain by

Jarrold & Sons Ltd, Norwich

30th Punjabis

Early Days 1857-1914

In August 1944, as always at that time of year,

the black monsoon clouds had closed down over

the jungle-clad Naga Hills, swamping everything

in torrential rain and turning the steep and sinuous

hill-tracks into a morass of quivering mud. Along

these paths staggered the starving, tattered rem-

nants of the Imperial Japanese Army which had

so proudly marched on India but three months

before. Upon the twin rocks of Imphal and

Kohima the invasion had foundered: nothing now

remained for the fever-ridden survivors but to seek

sanctuary beyond the Chindwin where, perhaps,

their pursuers might grant them respite and where

they might find opportunity to recover a little of

their strength. And while the Japanese withdrew

on Burma, the 30th Punjabis, their final task

completed, dug in on the rain-soaked ridges that

overlooked the Lokchao River.

The Regiment numbered little more than 300;

the stern fighting of the preceding weeks and the

appalling weather had taken a heavy toll. Below

the regimental position lay the road to Tamu, a

slim scar winding round the hillside. As the

soldiers watched the 11 th East African Division in

their 30 cwt Dodge trucks sweeping past to dis-

appear into the grey blanket of cloud shrouding

the road towards Tamu, no one in the 30th

Punjabis, or the 1st Battalion the 16th Punjab

Regiment as it was then entitled, realized that the

Regiment had fought its last great battle in the

service of the British.

It was at the time of another great crisis that the

Regiment had been raised. In May 1857 Indian

regiments stationed in Meerut suddenly mutinied.

Counter-measures were slow and ineffectual; in a

few weeks almost the whole Bengal Army of the

East India Company, 100,000 strong, had broken

out into a murderous and bloody revolt. British

regiments were few, many had been called away

to the war in the Crimea; and the Indian regi-

ments that remained loyal were inevitably suspect.

These were desperate days for the British. The

Brigadier C. P. Clarke. He joined the Regiment in 1915

and, except for spells recruiting and at the Training

Battalion, spent all his service with it until he relinquished

c o m m a n d in 1941. Like m a n y other British officers he

centred his life round the Regiment, and indeed did not

marry until after he had retired

mutinies had been accompanied by the massacre

of all British men, women and children, near the

scene of the outbreak. It was not only British rule

that was threatened; the continued existence of

every Briton in India seemed in the balance. The

Indian soldier, the sepoy, whose loyalty in the past

had been above question, on whose fighting ability

the whole structure of British power in India had

been built, had turned on his masters.

Fortunately, in North-West India in the Punjab

there existed men such as J o h n Lawrence, J o h n

Nicholson, Harry Lumsden - men whose courage

and determination were to become a legend within

the span of their own lives. The Punjab had been

annexed less than ten years before, when, after the

hardest wars Britain had fought in India, the

power of the Sikhs who ruled it was finally broken.

Beyond its borders lay the unruly kingdom of

Afghanistan. An unusually large number of British

regiments had been stationed in the newly con-

quered province to preserve law and order, and to

secure the frontiers against the incursions of the

Afghan and Pathan. In addition, the sepoys of

the Bengal Army, perhaps because they had

formerly greatly feared the Sikhs, had treated the

conquered Punjabis with a disdain and an arro-

gance that had made them detested from Lahore

to Rawalpindi. When the crisis came, the

Governor of the Punjab, Lawrence, was able to

act with energy and decision. All the Bengal Army

regiments were disbanded, and where mutinies

did occur the mutineers were speedily rounded up

or driven out of the province. To replace the dis-

banded units, Lawrence made the bold decision

to raise new regiments from the Punjab, and the

Punjabis, both Sikh and Mohammedan, eager to

avenge the insults and injuries they had suffered,

flocked to enlist.

Amongst the many regiments raised at this time

was the 22nd Regiment of Punjab Infantry, in due

course to become, after one or two transmutations,

the 30th Punjabis. It was merely one among the

many which remained in the Indian Army order

of battle after the Mutiny had been put down. Its

history is representative of that of the great body

of Indian infantry regiments of the line upon whose

devotion to duty the strength of the Indian Army

ultimately depended.

In J u n e 1857 Mr George Ricketts, the Deputy

Commissioner of Ludhiana, received orders to

raise a regiment. He resolved to call in any old

soldiers, of whatever unit, who might be on fur-

lough in his district. He wrote of the raising:

'A number of recruits had taken service from

Ludhiana District and had just reached their

homes 'on leave. I ordered them all into the

station and there they were, as fine a lot of three

year old (in service) soldiers as you could wish to

see, all in their clean white clothes looking their

best and wondering what they were wanted for.

I kept them in two old barracks, fed them well,

and when they had ceased coming in, I paraded

them according to the number of their regiments,

then according to the dates of their enlistment

and then I selected them by age — so many for

havildars, so many for ranks, leaving a few in

each grade for promotion - and you never saw

a lot of youngsters so happy, promoted to posts

which in ordinary times they would have taken

12 to 14 years to attain. Practically they drilled

themselves, they were always at it, even going to

the bazaar. At any time they fell in and marched

and worked as on parade.'

The Regiment had an authorized establishment

of 800 men organized into ten companies consisting

of a light company, a grenadier company and

eight line companies. Among these, four were

composed of Punjabi Mohammedans, four of

Sikhs and two of Dogras. The men were armed

with muskets and their early uniforms must have

been a hotchpotch of those current in the Bengal

Army at the time (see colour plate

A).

The Regiment, in common with most of those

newly raised, took no part in the great battles around

Delhi and Lucknow. On 14 February 1858, how-

ever, it joined the Shahjahanpore Field Brigade

and started to play a fully active role. By now the

war had become largely a matter of hunting down

fugitive bands of mutineers, a duty which the

Regiment embraced with no little zeal. As a

reward, it became a part of the permanent estab-

lishment of the Bengal Army. In 1859 its author-

ized establishment is shown as 1,000 men organized

into ten companies and including one sergeant-

major, two quartermaster-sergeants, two native

doctors, ten subedars, ten jemadars, sixty havil-

dars and twenty drummers.

The sergeant-major and quartermaster-sergeants

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