12th Frontier Force Regiment

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12th Frontier Force Regiment
Active March 11, 1922
Country British India
Branch British Indian Army
Type Infantry

The 12th Frontier Force Regiment was part of the British Indian Army . It was formed in 1922. It consisted of five regular battalions; numbered 1 to 5 and the 10th (Training )Battalion. During the Second World War a further 10 battalions were raised. The regiment became the Frontier Force Regiment in 1945 and was allocated to Pakistan when India was partitioned in 1947.

Contents

[edit] History

The 12th Frontier Force Regiment’s origins lie in the four infantry regiments of the Frontier Brigade authorised in 1846 and raised by Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Lawrence, the agent (and brother) of the Governor-General of the Punjab frontier region (John Lawrence, 1st Baron Lawrence), from veterans of disbanded opposition forces after the First Anglo-Sikh War. The 1st Sikhs were raised by Captain J. S. Hodgson at Hoshiarpur, the 2nd Sikhs by Captain J.W.V. Stephen at Kangra, the 3rd Sikhs by Captain F. Winter at Ferozpur and the 4th Sikhs by Captain C. MacKenzie at Ludhiana. Even at the start the Sikhs, although in the majority, were not in the preponderance, the unit names referring to their origins in the disbanded Sikh Army rather than their racial mix.[1] The nuclei of the regiments consisted of a few men from the regular Native Infantry regiments of the line and police officers.[2] The Governor-General issued a regulation in September 1847 which included the discontinuation of the term "Frontier Brigade" and re-named the four regiments the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Regiments of Sikh Local Infantry.[3]

At the same time Lawrence also ordered irregular force of mixed cavalry and infantry: the Corps of Guides to be raised at Mardan by Lieutenant Harry D. Lumsden an .[1] In 1851 the four Sikh regiments and the Corps of Guides became part of the Punjab Irregular Force. Men of these regiments (or their successors) are to this day known as Piffers. The four Sikh regiments also went through a number of minor name changes over the next 45 or so years: in 1857 they became "Regiment of Sikh Infantry, Punjab Irregular Force" and in 1865 "Regiment of Sikh Infantry, Punjab Frontier Force" (reflecting the change in name of the PIF to Punjab Frontier Force). In 1901, they became "Sikh Infantry". In 1876, the Corps of Guides became one of the first regiments in the Indian Army to be conferred royal status as Queen Victoria's Own Corps of Guides (Frontier Force).

In the 1903, reorganisation of the British Indian Army caused the four Sikh regiments to be re-designated the 51st, 52nd, 53rd and 54th Sikhs (Frontier Force) while the Corps of Guides infantry became Queen Victoria's Own Corps of Guides (Frontier Force) Infantry, and was re-named again in 1911 as Queen Victoria's Own Corps of Guides (Frontier Force) Lumsden's Infantry.

In the 1922 reorganisation of the British Indian Army, the four Sikh regiments became the first four battalions of the newly-constituted 12th Frontier Force Regiment. The two infantry battalions of the Corps of Guides became its 5th and 10th (training) battalions. At the same time the first battalion became the 1st battalion (Prince of Wales' Own Sikhs) whilst the 3rd battalion was made the 3rd Royal Battalion (Sikhs) in 1935. The Corps of Guides, being the senior unit, were entitled to have become the 1st battalion but agreed to allow the four Sikh battalions to retain their historical 1 to 4 numbering. The location of the training battalion, later to grow into the Regimental Center, was fist at Mardan but moved to Sialkot in 1929.[4] The precedence was restored in the 1957 reorganisation when the Guides battalion became the 2nd battalion of the new regiment, following the Scinde Rifles battalion from the Frontier Force Rifles regiment.

In 1945, the regiment was renamed the Frontier Force Regiment and on independence and the partition of India it was allocated to Pakistan. In 1957, the Frontier Force Rifles and The Pathan Regiment (which had been formed after independence from the 4th battalion Frontier Force Regiment and the 4th and 15th battalions Frontier Force Rifles) were amalgamated with it to form a new Frontier Force Regiment. The battalions of the new regiment are shown below with the names their predecessors:

  • 1st battalion: 6th bn Frontier Force Rifles; 59th Royal Scinde Rifles (Frontier Force)
  • 2nd battalion: 5th bn Frontier Force Regiment; 1st bn QVO Corps of Guides (Frontier Force) Lumsden's Infantry
  • 3rd battalion: 1st bn (PWO Sikhs) Frontier Force Regiment; 51st The Prince of Wales' Own Sikhs (Frontier Force)
  • 4th battalion: 2nd bn (Sikhs) Frontier Force Regiment; 52nd Sikhs (Frontier Force)
  • 5th battalion: 3rd Royal bn Sikhs Frontier Force Regiment; 53rd Sikhs (Frontier Force)
  • 6th battalion: 4th bn (Sikhs) Frontier Force Regiment; 54th Sikhs (Frontier Force) (reraised in 1948)
  • 7th battalion: 1st bn Frontier Force Rifles; 55th Coke's Rifles (Frontier Force)
  • 8th battalion: 2nd bn Frontier Force Rifles; 56th Punjabi Rifles (Frontier Force)
  • 9th battalion: 4th bn Frontier Force Rifles; 57th Wilde's Rifles (Frontier Force)
  • 10th battalion: 5th bn Frontier Force Rifles; 58th Vaughan's Rifles (Frontier Force)
  • 11th battalion: 1st bn Pathan Regiment; 4th bn Frontier Force Regiment; 54th Sikhs (Frontier Force)
  • 12th battalion: 3rd bn Pathan Regiment; 15th bn Frontier Force Rifles
  • 13th battalion: 8th bn Frontier Force Regiment
  • 14th battalion: 9th bn Frontier Force Regiment
  • 15th battalion: 2nd bn Pathan Regiment; 4th bn Frontier Force Rifles; 57th Wilde's Rifles

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Condon, Brigadier W.E.H. (1962). The Frontier Force Regiment. Aldershot: Gale & Polden. 

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Condon (1962), p. 3
  2. ^ History of the 1st Sikh Infantry, 1846 - 1886, Volume 1, (1929) [1887], p. 3
  3. ^ History of the 1st Sikh Infantry, 1846 - 1886, Volume 1, (1929) [1887], p. 6
  4. ^ Condon (1962), p. 153

[edit] External links

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