Rajputana Rifles - Lineage

Lineage

The regiment's origins lie in the 18th century when the East India Company (HEIC) recruited Rajputs to protect its operations. The impressive performance of French local units which were composed of local recruits mixed with French officers, helped the HEIC to decide that it needed to do something similar. In January 1775, it raised its first local infantry units which included the 5th Battalion, Bombay Sepoys, which is considered to be the oldest rifle regiment of the Indian Army. The 5th Battalion was successively redesignated as 9th Battalion Bombay Sepoys in 1778; 2nd Battalion, 2nd Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry in 1796; 4th Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry in 1824, and then 4th Regiment Native Infantry (Rifle Corps) in 1881. It thus became the first Rifle Regiment of the British Indian Army. In 1899 the Battalion was once more renamed as 4th Regiment (1st Battalion Rifle Corps) Bombay Infantry and again in 1901 as 4th Bombay Rifles.

In Kitchener's 1903 reorganisation of the Indian Army, 4th Bombay Rifles became 104th Wellesley’s Rifles, to commemorate the fact that the regiment had been commanded in 1800 by Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington). In the further re-organisation in 1921, six regiments were brought together to form six battalions of the 6th Rajputana Rifles Regiment:

• 1st Battalion - 104th Wellesley's Rifles
• 2nd Battalion - 120th Rajputana Infantry
• 3rd Battalion - 122nd Rajputana Infantry (God's Own)
• 4th Battalion - 123rd Outram's Rifles
• 5th Battalion - 125th Napier's Rifles
• 10th (Training) Battalion - 13th Rajputs (The Shekhawati Regiment).

In 1945 the regiments of the British Indian Army dropped the numeral in their titles and so the Rajputanas assumed their current name. In 1947 the regiment was allocated to India and the newly formed Indian Army when the sub-continent became independent from the British Empire. In 1949, the 1st Battalion was elevated to the status of guards, becoming 3rd Battalion, Brigade of the Guards.