23rd Sikh Pioneers

23rd Sikh Pioneers

Jemadar 23rd Sikh pioneers standing 4th from right
Active 1857-1922
Country  British India
Branch Army
Type Infantry
Size Three battalions
Part of Bengal Army (to 1895)
Bengal Command
Nickname(s) Mazhabi Pioneers
Uniform Drab; faced chocolate
Engagements Siege of Delhi 1857
Siege of Lucknow 1857
Capture of Lucknow 1857
Taku Forts 1858
Taku Forts 1860
Battle of Palikao 1860
Pekin 1860
1868 Abyssinia
1878 - 80 Afghanistan
1878 Peiwar Kotal
1879 Charasiah
1897 Kabul
1897 Chitral
1903 Tibet
1914-1918 First World War
1919 Afghanistan
1920 Iraq
Commanders
Colonel-in-Chief King Edward VII (1904)

The 23rd Sikh Pioneers were a regiment of the British Indian Army. They could trace their origins to 1857, when they were known as the 15th (Pioneer) Regiment of Punjab Infantry. The regiment recruited exclusively from the Mazhabi Sikh community of Punjab province. Despite being "pioneers" by name, the regiment functioned as a Sikh infantry regiment specially trained as assault pioneers.[1]

Brief History

They took part in the Battle of Taku Forts (1858), the Battle of Taku Forts (1860) and the Battle of Palikao in the Second Opium War.This was followed by the 1868 Expedition to Abyssinia a punitive expedition carried out by the armed forces of the British Empire against the Ethiopian Empire and Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia.[2] They next took part in the Battle of Peiwar Kotal,the Battle of Charasiab in the Second Afghan War in 1878.In 1903, they took part in the British expedition to Tibet an invasion of Tibet by British Indian forces, seeking to prevent the Russian Empire from interfering in Tibetan affairs.

After World War I, the Indian government reformed the army moving from single battalion regiments to multi battalion regiments.[3] In 1922, the 23rd Sikh Pioneers now became the 1st Battalion, 3rd Sikh Pioneers, they were renamed again in 1929, as the Corps of Sikh Pioneers, which was disbanded in 1933. During the Second World War the regiment was reformed and named the Sikh Light Infantry. This regiment was allocated to the new Indian Army after independence.

Colonels of the regiment

His Majesty King Edward VII became the Colonel-in-Chief of the regiment in 1904

Previous names

References


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