Historical Record of the Third, Or the King's Own Regiment of Light Dragoons

1836

1837

In June, 1836, the King's Own were stationed at Cahir and Clonmel; and returning to England in the spring of 1837, they proceeded to Canterbury. On the 19th May, 1837, Colonel Joseph Thackwell, late of the 15th Hussars, exchanged from the half-pay with Lieutenant Colonel Stisted.

The regiment, having been selected to proceed to the East Indies, embarked in July, 1837, for Bengal, and landed at Calcutta on the 13th of November following, under the command of Colonel Thackwell.

1838

The regiment was encamped in January, 1838, at Calcutta; in February at Burkee; in March at Kusseah; in April at Cawnpore, where it continued until the end of the year.44

1839

In February, 1839, the regiment was encamped at Chibbermold; in March at Meerut, at which station it remained until December, when it returned to Cawnpore.

The decease of Lieutenant-General Lord George Thomas Beresford, G.C.H., having taken place on the 26th October, 1839, Her Majesty was pleased to confer the colonelcy of the Third, or King's Own Light Dragoons, on Lieutenant General Lord Charles Somerset Manners, K.C.B., on the 8th November, 1839: Lord Charles Manners had commanded the regiment as Lieutenant-Colonel from 1812 to 1825, when he was promoted to the rank of Major-General.

On the 13th December, 1839, Lieut. – Colonel Michael White was promoted by purchase in succession to Lieut. – Colonel G. G. Tuite.

1840

1842

The regiment remained at Cawnpore until October, 1840, when it proceeded to Kurnaul. It marched from thence on 28th January, 1842, en route for Ferozepore, having been selected to form part of the force which had been ordered to proceed under Major-General Pollock to relieve the troops under Colonel Sir Robert Sale, who had gallantly defended Jellalabad; and also for the purpose of inflicting retribution upon the Affghans, whose treachery had caused the loss of so many brave officers and soldiers.

The Third Light Dragoons continued their advance on Peshawur, and a squadron of the regiment, under Lieutenant Unett, protected the column of attack under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Taylor, of Her Majesty's Ninth Regiment of Foot, which captured the heights on the right entrance to the Khyber Pass, on the 5th April, 1842. Major-General Pollock, in his despatch announcing the successful advance of the troops into the Khyber Pass, states: 'there were some of the enemy's horse in the vicinity of Ali Musjid, but I regret they did not wait for Brigadier White (Lieutenant-Colonel of the King's Own) and his brigade to make an example of them.'

The regiment arrived at Jellalabad in April, 1842, where it remained until the 14th August following, when it proceeded to Futteabad, detaching one squadron to Mammoo Khail on the 23rd of that month. The Third Light Dragoons left Futteabad on the 2nd September, and on arriving at Jugdulluck, the summits of the hills, which command the road through the pass, were perceived to be occupied by a considerable number of the enemy, who were assembled in bodies under different chieftains, each having a distinguishing standard; their position was one of singular strength and difficulty of approach. The heights occupied by the Ghilzies formed an amphitheatre, inclining towards the left of the road, on which the troops were halted, while the guns opened; and the enemy were thus enabled, on this point, to fire into the column, a deep ravine preventing the troops coming in contact with them.

The British troops, however, on attacking one of their hill-forts, gave an animated and enthusiastic cheer, which so dismayed the enemy, that they fled down the heights without waiting the collision, and were thus enabled to escape chastisement by the nature of the ground, which was so well calculated to favour their retreat. At this moment, Major Lockwood with the Third, King's Own Light Dragoons, galloped up, and nearly succeeded in overtaking the enemy's cavalry, who effected their safety by flight.45

The loss of the regiment at the storming of the heights of Jugdulluck on the 8th of September, 1842, was limited to two men wounded.

Major-General Pollock, in his despatch, speaks of the conduct of the troops employed in the following terms: —

'It gratifies me to be enabled to state, that we have thus signally defeated, with one division of the troops, the most powerful tribes, and the most inveterate of our enemies, the original and principal actors in those disturbances which entailed such disasters on our troops last winter.'

The regiment was also engaged with the enemy in the Tezeen valley, which is completely encircled by lofty hills; the pass of Tezeen affords great advantages to an enemy occupying the heights, and Mahomed Akbar-Khan neglected nothing to render its natural difficulties as formidable as possible; accordingly on the morning of the 13th September, the Affghans appeared in great force on every height which had not been occupied by the British army. Two squadrons of the Third Light Dragoons, a party of the first light cavalry, and of the third irregular cavalry, with two guns, were left to guard the mouth of the Tezeen pass. The enemy's horse appeared in the valley with the intention of falling upon the baggage; but the Light Dragoons and native cavalry made a most brilliant charge, and completely routed the whole body of the enemy's force, cutting down a great number of them. The fight continued during the greater part of the day, the Affghans appearing resolved to prevent our ascending the Huft Kotul; one spirit, however, pervaded all, and the determination to conquer overcame the obstinate resistance of the foe, who were at length forced from their numerous and strong positions, and the British troops mounted the Huft Kotul, giving three cheers on reaching the summit. Here Lieutenant Cunningham, with a party of sappers, pressed the enemy so hard, that they left in their precipitation a twenty-four pounder howitzer and limber, carrying off the draught bullocks. Information being received that another gun had been seen, a squadron of cavalry under Captain Tritton, of the Third Light Dragoons, and two horse artillery guns, under Major Delafosse, were detached in pursuit; the gun (a twelve-pounder howitzer) and bullocks sufficient for the two guns, were soon captured. The Light Dragoons again got among the enemy, and succeeded in destroying many of them. Captain Broadfoot, with the sappers, advanced, and with the dragoons happened to fall in with another party of Affghans, of whom upwards of twenty were killed. It was ascertained, that the enemy numbered sixteen thousand, a considerable portion being cavalry; and that Mahomed Akbar-Khan, with several other powerful chiefs, was present46.

The British thus gained a complete victory, and the enemy must have suffered severely, several hundreds of them having been killed, and their guns, and three standards, captured from them. A detachment of the Third Light Dragoons formed part of the rear-guard of the army under the command of Lieut. – Colonel Richmond, of the 33rd Native Infantry, and it being resolved to anticipate the evident intention of the Affghans, by attacking them in the valley of Tezeen, on the 13th September, the guns were moved forward within range of the enemy, supported by the front squadron of the Third Light Dragoons under Captain Unett, with other corps, in order to charge the foe if the ground proved favourable, and an opportunity offered; this soon occurred, the guns having made good impression, and the other squadron of cavalry, under Major Lockwood, was hurried forward as a support, thus ensuring the success achieved by the spirited and gallant charge of their comrades in front, which completely dispersed the enemy, who left about fifty men on the field.47

Major-General Pollock, in his despatch of the action at Tezeen, expresses his satisfaction with the exertions of Lt. – Colonel White of the Third Light Dragoons, commanding the cavalry brigade, and also of Major Lockwood, who commanded the regiment. The Third Light Dragoons sustained but trifling loss in the Tezeen valley, and on the Huft Kotul, on the 12th and 13th September, having only one serjeant and four rank and file wounded; two horses killed, and eleven wounded.

After these successes, the army moved on without opposition, and arrived at Cabool on the 15th September, where they encamped on the race course. The Third Light Dragoons, under Major Lockwood, proceeded with other corps to plant the British colours in the Bala Hissar, on the spot most conspicuous from the city. On the colours being hoisted, the band of Her Majesty's Ninth Regiment of Foot struck up 'God save the Queen,' and a royal salute was fired from the guns of the horse artillery, the whole of the troops present giving three cheers. The colours in the Bala Hissar were hoisted daily as long as the army remained at Cabool.

The head-quarters and two squadrons of the regiment, under Major Lockwood, formed part of the force which was detached under Major-General McCaskill (Lieutenant-Colonel of the Ninth Foot), for the purpose of dispersing the enemy collected in the vicinity of Charekar, and took part in the operations against the strong and populous town of Istalif, which was considered by the Affghans as totally inaccessible, but which was captured on the 29th September 1842; the numerous levies collected for its defence were totally defeated, and property of every description (much of it plundered from the army in 1841) was recovered; two brass field-pieces were captured, one of which was seized with such promptitude, that its captor, Lieutenant Elmhirst, of Her Majesty's Ninth Foot, turned its fire upon the fugitives with some effect48.

Among the gratifying results of these successes was the release of several ladies and officers who had been detained prisoners by Akbar-Khan.

The regiment, having been present during the whole of the operations west of the Indus, leading to the occupation of Cabool, has received the Royal permission to bear on its appointments the word 'Cabool 1842.'

1843

1844

The regiment left Cabool on the 12th October, 1842, and arrived at Ferozepore on the 18th December, from whence it marched to Kurnaul, where it arrived on the 27th January 1843; it remained at Kurnaul until November, when it marched for Umballa, and continued at that station during the year 1844, and until the end of the following year.

1845

On the 11th December, 1845, the regiment, consisting of 518 men, under the command of Lieut. – Colonel Michael White, marched from cantonments at Umballa, and formed a part of the leading division of the Army of the Sutlej, hastily assembled, under the personal command of General Sir Hugh Gough, G.C.B., Commander-in-Chief in India, for the purpose of repelling an invasion by the Sikhs.49

On arriving at the village of Moodkee, a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, on the 18th December, the army had just taken up its encampments, when intelligence was received, that the enemy's forces, consisting of twenty thousand cavalry, and about the same number of infantry and artillery, were close at hand, and intended to surprise the British camps. The cavalry were immediately turned out, and advanced to cover the formation of the infantry, and the distinguished part which the Third, or King's Own Regiment of Light Dragoons, took in the sanguinary and memorable battle of the evening of that day may be best judged from the words of His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief in his despatch of the 19th December 1845: – 'I directed the cavalry, under Brigadiers White and Gough (of the King's Own), to make a flank movement on the enemy's left, with a view of threatening and turning that flank, if possible.

'With praiseworthy gallantry, the Third Light Dragoons, and the second brigade of cavalry, consisting of the body-guard and Fifth Light cavalry, with a portion of the Fourth Lancers, turned the left of the Sikh army, and sweeping along the whole rear of its infantry and guns, silenced for a time the latter, and put their numerous cavalry to flight.'

In this action the regiment suffered severely, owing to the nature of the ground, and the immense body of cavalry opposed to it. The loss, out of four hundred and ninety-four men, on this occasion, was as follows: – killed, 3 officers, 58 men; 5 officers' chargers, and 100 troop horses; wounded, 3 officers, 34 men; 2 officers' chargers, and 21 troop horses.

Brevet Major W. R. Herries, Captain G. Newton, and Cornet E. Worley, were killed.

Lieutenant S. Fisher (Acting Major of Brigade), E. G. Swinton, and E. B. Cureton, were severely wounded.

On the 21st December, the army again advanced; the Third Light Dragoons had about four hundred men; and came up with the enemy, said to consist of 70,000 men, who were strongly posted in and around the village of "Ferozeshah" their camp intrenched, and defended by a numerous and powerful artillery.

At about four o'clock in the afternoon the action became general. The Third Light Dragoons were ordered to attack the enemy's position at a point defended by some of the heaviest batteries, most of the guns being of battering calibre: as the regiment advanced, it was assailed with round shot and shell from several batteries. On arriving within about two hundred and fifty yards of the guns, the regiment moved on at top speed, under a most destructive fire of grape and musketry, whilst their infantry held the trenches at the point of the bayonet. Nothing dismayed, but determined on victory, the regiment pressed forward, and never for a moment was checked in its career until it finally entered the enemy's camp, and captured the whole of the batteries opposed to it; many of the Sikh artillerymen remaining to be cut down at their guns. Night having fallen, while the conflict was everywhere raging, and several mines having been sprung, together with the exploding of their field magazines, by which several men and horses were destroyed, the regiment was withdrawn a short distance from the burning camp, where it bivouacked for the night.

The enemy having held a portion of his position, and being strongly reinforced in the night, the battle was renewed the next morning, and the Third Light Dragoons at daybreak joined the remainder of the cavalry, and participated in the action of the 22nd of December, when about three o'clock, P. M., the Third Light Dragoons were again ordered to charge the enemy, which he did not wait to receive, and he was finally driven from the field, and the army bivouacked on the ground they had won. The men and horses of the Third Light Dragoons were upwards of forty hours without food or water, nearly the whole of the time exposed to, and in conflict with, a powerful enemy; the days were hot and the nights intensely cold.

In this great battle the regiment lost as follows: – killed, 2 officers and 53 men; wounded, 7 officers and 86 men; total, 9 officers and 139 men: killed, 9 officers' chargers and 98 troop horses: wounded, 60 troop horses; total killed and wounded, 9 officers' chargers and 158 troop horses.

The officers killed, were Captain J. E. Codd and Cornet H. Ellis; wounded, Colonel M. White, slightly: Major C. W. M. Balders, slightly: Lieutenants, H. C. Morgan, severely; J. G. A. Beeston, slightly: Cornets, W. H. Orme, severely; J. D. White and J. Rathwell, slightly.

The Commander-in-Chief, in his despatch of the 22nd December, 1845, observes as follows: 'Although I brought up Major-General Sir Harry Smith's division, and he captured and long retained another point of the position, and Her Majesty's Third Light Dragoons charged and took some of the most formidable batteries, yet the enemy remained in possession of a considerable portion of the great quadrangle, whilst our troops, intermingled with theirs, kept possession of the remainder, and finally bivouacked upon it, exhausted by their gallant efforts, greatly reduced in numbers, and suffering extremely from thirst, yet animated by an indomitable spirit. In this state of things, the long night wore away!'

The Right Honourable the Governor-General, (Lord Hardinge), who personally witnessed the prowess of the regiment on the battle-field, makes honorable mention thereof in his Orders, dated 30th December, 1845.

'The Governor-General offers his thanks more especially to Her Majesty's Third Light Dragoons, who, on all these occasions, sought opportunities of useful conflict with the enemy, and fought with that superiority over their opponents which skill and discipline impart to brave and determined men.'

The regiment was detached from the army at Sultan-Khan-Wallah, and sent to Ferozepore, where it arrived on the 31st December 1845.

1846

It remained at Ferozepore until the 18th January, 1846, and again proceeded to, and joined, the head quarters of the army at Jelliwallah, on the 20th of January.

The glorious action at Aliwal took place on the 28th of January, 'when the enemy's camp was carried by storm; the whole of his cannon and munitions of war were captured, and his army driven headlong across the Sutlej; even on the right bank of which he found no refuge from the fire of our artillery.'

The Third Light Dragoons were assembled on parade on the morning of the 29th of January to celebrate the victory of Aliwal, when the Right Honourable the Governor-General, in the presence of the whole army, was pleased to make use of the following words, most gratifying to the feelings of every soldier: – 'Colonel White, your regiment is an honour to the British army; and I wish you to make known these my sentiments, as head of this Government, to your officers and men.'

On the 10th of February, 1846, the regiment had the proud satisfaction of sharing and taking a conspicuous part in that glorious and mighty combat, the Battle of Sobraon, when the Sikhs were driven from their stronghold, and precipitated in masses into the Sutlej, and those proud invaders were expelled the soil of British India.

The Right Honourable the Governor-General, in his Order of Thanks to the Army, was pleased to pass the following high encomium on the conduct of the regiment in this fight: —

'Her Majesty's Third Light Dragoons, as usual, were in the foremost ranks, and distinguished themselves under their commanding officer, Lieut. – Colonel White.'

His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, in his despatch, dated 13th February, 1846, thus expresses his unqualified approbation of the conduct of the regiment on this occasion: – 'The Sikhs, even when at particular points their intrenchments were mastered by the bayonet, strove to regain them by the fiercest conflict sword in hand; nor was it until the cavalry of the left, under the command of Major-General Sir Joseph Thackwell,50 had moved forward and ridden through the openings in the intrenchments made by our Sappers, in single files, and reformed as they passed them, and the Third Light Dragoons, whom no obstacle usually held formidable by horse, appears to check, had on this day, as at Ferozeshah, galloped over, and cut down the obstinate defenders of batteries and field-works, and until the full weight of three divisions of infantry with every field artillery gun which could be sent to their aid, had been cast into the scale, that victory finally declared for the British.51

'The fire of the Sikhs first slackened, and then nearly ceased; and the victors then pressing them on every side, precipitated them in masses over their bridge, and into the Sutlej, which a sudden rise of seven inches had rendered hardly fordable. In their efforts to reach the right bank through the deepened water, they suffered from our horse-artillery a terrible carnage: hundreds fell under this cannonade; hundreds upon hundreds were drowned in attempting the perilous passage. Their awful slaughter, confusion, and dismay, were such as would have excited compassion in the hearts of their generous conquerors, if the Khalsa troops had not, in the earlier part of the action, sullied their gallantry by slaughtering and barbarously mangling every wounded soldier, whom, in the vicissitudes of attack, the fortune of war left at their mercy.

'I must pause in this narrative to notice, especially, the determined hardihood and bravery with which our two battalions of Ghoorkhas, the Sirmoor and Nusseeree, met the Sikhs, wherever they were opposed to them: soldiers, of small stature but indomitable spirit, they vied in ardent courage in the charge with the grenadiers of our own nation; and armed with the short weapon of their mountains, were a terror to the Sikhs throughout this great combat.

'Sixty-seven pieces of cannon, upwards of two hundred camel-swivels (zumbooruks), numerous standards, and vast munitions of war, captured by our troops, are the pledges and trophies of our victory.

'The battle was over by eleven in the morning; and in the forenoon I caused our engineers to burn a part, and to sink a part, of the vaunted bridge of the Khalsa army, across which they had boastfully come once more to defy us, and to threaten India with ruin and devastation.

'The consequences of this great action have yet to be fully developed. It has at least, in God's providence, once more expelled the Sikhs from our territory, and planted our standards on the soil of the Punjaub. After occupying their entrenched position for nearly a month, the Khalsa army had perhaps mistaken the caution, which had induced us to wait for the necessary materiel, for timidity: but they must now deeply feel, that the blow, which has fallen on them from the British arm, has only been the heavier for being long delayed.'

The following are the losses sustained by the Third Light Dragoons in the action of Sobraon: killed, 5 men, 1 troop horse; wounded, 4 officers and 22 men, 2 officers' chargers and 13 troop horses.

The officers wounded were, Lieutenant-Colonel J. B. Gough (Acting Quarter-Master General), very severely; Lieutenant J. B. Hawkes, slightly; Cornet Kauntze, severely; and Quarter-Master A. Crabtree, slightly.

The Third Light Dragoons crossed the Sutlej on the 13th February, 1846, and marched on Lahore, where the British army arrived on the 20th, and encamped on that soil held sacred by the Khalsa troops, the 'Plains of Myan Meer,' where it remained until the 24th March. The object for which the army was assembled having been attained, the Third Light Dragoons returned to their former quarters at Umballa on the 7th April, having, in less than four months, marched upwards of six hundred miles, and taken a conspicuous part in three of the greatest actions recorded in the annals of British India.

On the 22nd of February, 1846, the Right Honourable the Governor-General made the following announcement in General Orders: —

'The British Army has this day occupied the gateway of the Citadel of Lahore, the Badshahee Mosque, and the Huzzooree Bagh.

'The Army of the Sutlej has now brought its operations in the field to a close, by the dispersion of the Sikh army, and the military occupation of Lahore, preceded by a series of the most triumphant successes ever recorded in the military history of India.

'The British government, trusting to the faith of treaties, and to the long subsisting friendship between the two states, had limited military preparations to the defence of its own frontier. Compelled suddenly to assume the offensive, by the unprovoked invasion of its territories, the British Army, under the command of its distinguished leader, has, in sixty days, defeated the Sikh forces in four general actions; has captured two hundred and twenty pieces of field artillery; and is now at the Capital dictating to the Lahore Durbar the terms of a treaty, the conditions of which will tend to secure the British Provinces from the repetition of a similar outrage.'

On the 4th March, 1846, the Governor-General made the following further announcement: —

'Early on the morning of the 22nd February, a brigade of British troops took formal possession of the Citadel of Lahore, the Badshahee Musjed, and the Huzzooree Bagh.

'I considered the occupation of Lahore, and the close of active operations in the field, a proper opportunity for marking, by substantial reward, the gratitude of the British Government to its faithful and brave army, which had fought so gloriously, and so successfully; and I was glad at being able thus to bring into prominent contrast, the just reward of discipline and obedience, with the certain penalty of insubordination and violence, as exemplified in the fate of the two armies, which had been so long the objects of mutual observation; the one, victorious in the field, and honoured and bountifully rewarded by its Government; the other, in spite of its exceeding numbers and advantageous positions, vanquished in every battle, abandoned by a government it had coerced, and, with its shattered remains, left, but for the intercession of its conquerors, to disperse with no provision of any kind, and to seek a precarious subsistence by rapine and crime.'