Imperial Policing

A wounded soldier is extracted during the Tirah Campaign in India, 1897.

For much of the 19th and early 20th century, most of the British Army was deployed policing the largest overseas empire the world had ever known. India - 'The Jewel in the Crown' - absorbed a very large proportion of these overseas deployments where British regiments served alongside regiments of the Indian Army.

Following the Indian Mutiny, many of the units of the Honourable East India Company were transferred to the British Army and in 1881 3rd Madras European Regiment became the 108th Regiment and later the 2nd Battalion The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.

In 1856, the 1st Battalion was serving on the North West Frontier of India guarding the Khyber Pass against attack by Afghan tribes and clans. They took no part in the supression of the Mutiny and remained on the Frontier until they returned home in 1867.

In 1897, the 2nd Battalion were in the Peshawar Column of the Tirah Expeditionary Force, involved in a series of punitative expeditions against the Afridi and Orakzai tribal clans of the Kyber Pass and North West Frontier in 1897/98.

The Inniskillings were back in India immediately prior to the First World War and again during the Second World War and in the run up to Indian Independence. They were one of the last regiments to leave India prior to partition with Pakistan.

1st Inniskillings were posted to China in the aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion and had detachments in Peking and Tienstin. The Inniskillings did two tours of duty in Burma, firstly from 1892-1896 on garrison duties and again during the Second World War when they took part in operations in the Yenangyuan oil field and the Arakan, in both of which they suffered horrendous casualties.