THE GUIDES SAAB

KA RISALA - 1846-1900

It was one of, if not the most famous corps in the British India Army.
Col. G.J. Younghusband (a prolific writer and brother of the great explorer
Francis Younghusband), wrote The Story of the Guides and M.M. Kay’s
wrote her epic bestseller novel, The Far Pavilions whose hero served in the
Guides. Her husband Major General Godfrey John Hamilton, DSO, served
in the Guides and some of the episodes are from the history of the corps.
The Guides is also recognized for introducing the khaki uniform to many of
the world armies.
On the orders of Sir Henry Lawrence, the British Resident at Lahore,
the Guides was raised in 1846 by Lt. Lumsden, an assistant political
agents. The genesis of the corps was in Napoleon’s Corps des Guides
raised for conducting special reconnaissance. It was replicated by
Wellington who witnessed it in operation during the Peninsula War (1812-
14). Napoleon’s Corps des Guides ultimately transformed into the world-
famed ten thousand strong Imperial Guard and though the Guides could
never muster that large a number, like the Guards, it built up a ‘reputation
for bravery and efficiency that was the envy of all other units,’ and its fame
spread throughout the British Empire.
It was an irregular corps of cavalry and infantry of trustworthy Afridis,
Khattaks, Yusufzais, Sikhs, Punjabi Mussalmans, Punjabi Hindus,
Farsiwans (Persians), Dogras, Gurkhas, Kabulis, Turkomans and others
who were paid a special rate; capable of acting as guides and collecting cis
and trans frontier intelligence. The corps could also take to the field at very
short notice. On the morning of 13 May 1857, the Guides was relieved by a
Native Regiment at 11 a.m. and within seven hours it marched out of
Mardan with five officers, 153 sabers and 349 rifles. Fasting during the day
(they left on the 18th day of Ramzan) and marching at night because of the
heat, they covered the 934 kms to Delhi in 22 days. They would have
arrived sooner if they hadn’t stopped on the way for five days to subdue
rebels. Within three hours of arriving, they went into action.
The corps was raised in Peshawar and Lumsden chose the tomb of a
governor as his headquarter and residence. The dome shaped structure
which still stands within the premises of the Mission Hospital has some
relics of the Guides including its crest with the motto ‘Honi soit qui mal y
pense’ which translated from French means ‘May he be shamed who thinks
badly of it.’ This maxim also appears on the royal coat of arms of Great
Britain. In its early years, the corps was constantly on the move and the
inscription under its crest embedded in the tomb reads ‘Astra Castra’
meaning ‘The stars my camp’. However, after three years, it was decided to
construct a permanent home “to give shelter to 876 wild men and 300 wild
horses.” In 1854, Colonel Hodson (of Hodson Horse fame), constructed the
‘Hoti-Mardan Fort [that] became not only the home of the Guides, but also
the symbol of British power on the wild borders of Yaghistan, the land of
everlasting conflict and of unending vendettas.’ It was from here that the
Guides would march to Delhi in 1857 and also take part in numerous
operations on the Frontier.
At its inception the corps had only one troop of cavalry and two
companies of infantry, about 300 men in all. In its first five years it
participated in over 16 operations including the Second Anglo-Sikh War of
1848-49 and its legend started to grow with acts of bravery mixed with
guile. Subedar Rasul Khan managed to bluff his way into Govindgarh Fort
held by a Sikh regiment by tying up three of his soldiers and pretending that
he had brought prisoners. In the early hours of the morning, his small band
overpowered the Sikh guards and let the rest of the Guides in thus forcing
a surrender. Fighting on the Frontier often required a bold and instant
response. When a punitive force led by Sir Colin Campbell besieged
Nawadand in 1852, the Uthman Khels caught the besiegers unaware with a
stealthy attack. However, a young subaltern in an outlying picket led his 20
men in a desperate but successful charge that shocked the attackers and
gave enough time for the Force to form. In another punitive operation,
when a picket of 30 was pinned down, Lt. Lyell, the doctor led the Gurkha
company of the Guides with another Gurkha company in a charge that
overran the tribesmen and he then went back to tending the injured.
 It was after the siege of Delhi that the Guides became a household
name. Among the 23 recipients of the Indian Order of Merit (IOM) from the
corps was Jumma the bhishti as a result of a vote by the troops. He was
subsequently enlisted as a sepoy – an un-paralleled honor for a low-cast
‘follower’ – rose to be an Indian officer and won a clasp to his IOM at Kabul
during the Second Afghan War. He was the original of Gunga Din in
Kipling’s poem whose last stanza reads, ‘Though I’ve belted you and flayed
you, By the livin’ Gawd that made you, You’re a better man than I am,
Gunga Din!’ All the officers of the corps were killed or injured at Delhi. Lt.
Quintin Battye was one of four Battye brothers who served in the Guides
the first of three to be killed in battle. As he lay dying, he murmured the
words of a Roman poet, ‘It is sweet and honorable to die for the fatherland’.
The casualties that the corps incurred at Delhi, proves the intensity of the
fight that it was involved in. It arrived with 646 all ranks and the casualties
were over 50 percent. The infantry of the corps which was constantly
engaged was almost annihilated and had to be renovated.
Five years later the corps was battling at the Ambela Pass, the scene
of one of the bloodiest contests between the British India Army and a mixed
force of Pakhtun tribes and ‘Hindutani Wahabis’. The Ambela Campaign of
1863 was an expensive victory for the British Force with 238 killed and 670
wounded and the key positions like the Eagles Nest, Conical Hill and Crag
Picquet became part of the lore of the army. “Four time the picquet was
fiercely attacked with overwhelming numbers by a brave and fanatical foe,
thrice captured, and thrice by sterling grit and stout endeavor bravely
recaptured”. The British force contained some eminent personalities like
Neville Chamberlain, the major general who commanded PIFFERS, Digby
Probyn of Probyn’s Horse, Robert Sandeman who controlled the tribes of
Balochistan and Frederick (Bob) Roberts of Kabul to Kandahar fame and
later C-in-C India. The Guides which fought during all four attempts to
recapture Crag Picquet, was commanded by yet another famous officer –
Col. Wildes, who raised and commanded the 4th Punjab Infantry (later 9th
FF Battalion of the Pakistan Army), that marched from Bannu to Delhi in
1857 and subsequently onwards to lift the siege of Lucknow.
Three years before the advent of the Second Afghan War, Edward
the Prince of Wales toured India and during his visit to Lahore in 1876, the
Guides cavalry arrived from Mardan to provide his escort. Subsequently
Queen Victoria was pleased to appoint the Prince as Honorary Colonel of
the corps and conferred on it the distinction of being styled the ‘Queen’s
Own’. Shortly after becoming King Emperor, George V approved the title of
the corps being changed to ‘Queen Victoria’s Own Corps Guides
(Lumsden)’.
During the Second Afghan War of 1878-80, the Guides was in action
from the outset at the fort of Ali Masjid which guards the narrowest point on
the Khyber Pass. A few months before the war while they were shielding
the mouth of the pass, an incident occurred that M.M. Kay has included in
her novel and in the history of the Guides, it is recalled as the Tale of Two
Rifles. The tribe inhabiting the pass are Afridis and a young soldier of the
corps from the same tribe found an opportunity while on night guard to
disappear with two rifles. In Frontier Warfare, two things were absolute
taboo – to leave an injured officer or soldier behind to be hacked to death
and to lose a weapon. The CO was furious and ordered all the 17 Afridis in
the force to be paraded up and stripped of their uniform and equipment.
"Now," said Jenkins the CO, "You can go, and don't let me see your faces
again till you bring back those two rifles." The soldiers left and as days
turned into weeks and months, it was obvious that all of them must have
deserted. Their places were filled by new recruits and they were forgotten.
Until, that is, two years later, all 17 turned up at Mardan – with the two
rifles. They were ragged and dirty and had spent all that time waging their
own mini tribal war against fellow Afridis until they had at last found the
precious rifles.
One of the most dramatic charges by the Guides Cavalry was at
Fattehabad, on the road from Jallalabad to Kabul in April 1879. A large
force from the tribe of Khugianis numbering over 5,000 were entrenched
behind an extensive sanger wall at the top of a long sloping escarpment. A
feint by the cavalry and artillery followed by a withdrawal, drew the
tribesmen out of their sangars [entrenchments] and the two squadrons of
the Guides commanded by Major Wigram Battye turned around and
charged. However, Battye was shot in the hip early on and walked his
horse as the rest charged on now led by a young Irishman called Lt. Walter
Hamilton. As it gathered momentum over difficult stony ground, they
encountered a 9ft deep dry gulley but the Guides were going too fast to
avoid it and plunged down the steep drop and on towards the tribesmen.
The Khugianis were unnerved and fell back as Hamilton and his sowars
stormed up the slope and cut through them. In the fight Hamilton rescued a
fallen sowar trapped under his horse and being set upon by three
tribesmen. Afghan losses were put at 400 and the Guides lost 20 men and
37 horses. It also lost its commander who had been shot again this time
fatally. He was the second of the Battye brothers to be killed in the service
of the corps. He had been in the Corps of Guides in the Second China
War, the Ambela Campaign and the Jowaki Expedition. Battye’s Pathan
and Sikh sowars, did not allow the ambulance staff to touch his body, and
themselves carried it back to camp.
Fattehabad was an iconic battle for the Guides, commencing with the
death of Maj. Battye and culminating in the winning of the VC by Lt.
Hamilton during the mounted charge. Unfortunately, five months later he
was dead, killed while defending the Residency at Kabul. Hamilton was
commanding an escort of 25 Sowars and 50 Sepoys of the Guides that
accompanied Cavagnari, the British resident appointed to Kabul. To avoid
provoking the Afghans, the size of the escort was small. Three months later
the Residency was attacked by 5000 mutinous Afghan troops who had not
been paid by the Amir and believed that the Residency had gold. Hamilton
and his soldiers were massacred during an 8-hour siege. Unable to break-
in due to the resolute defence, the mutineers brought up cannons and
Hamilton was killed in the last of three forays to capture the guns. The
mutineers called on the dozen left alive to surrender but the loyalty to the
Corps was fierce and to uphold the honor of Lumsden’s Guide, they chose
to die in one final rush. A commission that investigated the events
expressed the opinion that, "the annals of no army and no regiment can
show a brighter record of bravery than has been achieved by this small
band of Guides." The Guides was in Afghanistan for most of the Afghan
campaign and fought both the battles of Sherpur Cantonment and
Charasiab. When Roberts and his ten thousand marched to relieve
Kandahar, they were sent back to their hard-earned rest, after two years of
incessant warfare, with a casualty roll of 248 of all ranks and 142 horses.
In 1892, with contributions from its officers, the corps erected The
Kabul Memorial to honor its officers, and men who sacrificed their lives in
defence of the Queen's Residency in Kabul. It is a three-storied structure,
whose design merged the architecture of mosques, temples as well as
churches. On both sides of the building, there are marble captions in
Persian, English, and Pushto. Also still standing in Mardan is the Guides
Chapel next to the graveyard. Some of the graves bear famous names
associated with the Guides who died in battle, like two of the heroic Battye
brothers – Wigram and Fred. Those who died too far away to find a resting
place here are remembered by the tablets erected in their memory in the
Church; including General Sir Harry Lumsden, the officer who raised the
Corps of Guides.
Col. Fred Battye was the third brother to be killed. He was
commanding the Guides during the 1895 campaign for the relief of Chitral.
A small British force was laid siege to inside the Chitral Fort and two
columns were dispatched to lift the siege – one from Gilgit in the north and
another from Mardan. The first hurdle was the Malakand Pass, and it fell to
the Guides' infantry to turn the right flank of the enemy. Supported by the
4th Sikhs (renumbered as 54 Sikhs / 6 FF Battalio), after five hours of hard
fighting it captured a commanding mountain which to this day is marked on
maps as Guides' Hill. The next day, a weak squadron of the Guides'
cavalry of 50 horsemen was awaiting orders ahead of the pass. The
neighboring hills were covered with a dense mass of tribesmen, firing
heavily on a Dogra battalion and about 2000 of them swept into the open
with the intentions of enveloping its flank. The squadron commander had
ridden back to take the General's orders and sensing that the moment to
strike had arrived, Lt. Baldwin boldly took the initiative and launched an
attack. The moment the little squadron appeared round the corner of a
spur, the mass of tribesmen paused and then the whole body broke and
fled, fiercely pursued by the cavalry.
As the Relief Force pushed ahead, the action by the Guides’ infantry
at the crossing of the River Panjkora ahead of Chakdara provides an
excellent example of the delicate and dangerous operation of fighting a
withdrawal in the face of determined tribesmen. Five companies of the
Guides infantry had crossed the river in the evening to cover the passage
of the main force. However, during the night the river rose 14 feet and
swept the bridge away, leaving them cut off. Aware that inactivity would
invite trouble, next morning their commander, Col. Fred Battye, led the
companies in an attack on the neighboring hostile villages. However, a little
later, from the home bank the main force saw dense masses of tribesmen,
subsequently estimated at 7,000 to 10,000, rapidly approaching the Guides
right flank. The CO was ordered to retire and consolidate his five
companies within the bridgehead. It is on an occasion like this that the true
fighting value of a regiment shows itself. Adhering to the time tested maxim
of Frontier Warfare, "Be fiery quick in attack, but deadly slow in retirement,"
and much to the anxiety of the entire brigade watching from the home
bank, distant figures in khaki slowly withdrew while holding the tribesmen at
bay with volleys of fire. The mass of tribesmen spilt in two with one body
heading to cut off the retreat. Two companies of the Guides that were
holding the base, sallied forth to check their advance and extend a helping
hand to the rest of the regiment. As the Guides pulled back, a mountain
battery on the other bank gave covering fire when the tribesmen were
within its range of 600 meters and some reinforcements trickled across on
a makeshift raft. The last part of the withdrawal was the most treacherous
across a stream three feet deep through several hundred yards of barley
standing waist high. While executing it, Col. Fred Battye, fell mortally
wounded. The fighting continued into the night, at which point the mountain
battery sent up star shells, the forerunners of flares. This was the turning
point of the battle because the tribesmen were terrified (‘What new
devilment is this?’) and fled.
A year later, the Guides was back in Swat during the Pathan Revolt
of 1897 which was a result of the division of Pashtun tribes by the
demarcation of the Durand Line. British and Indian units based at Malakand
were laid siege and within 12 hours, an advance force of Guides infantry
arrived from Mardan to reinforce the Garrison against repeated attacks.
The Guides cavalry also arrived later as well as large reinforcements from
Nowshera. After the Siege of Malakand was raised, a relief force that
included two squadrons and four companies of the Guides and lifted the
month long siege of the Chakdara Fort which had been held for a month by
a small force of 200.
As stated earlier, the corps bred fierce loyalty. While inspecting the
Corps, Sir John Lawrence, Governor of the Punjab lost his temper and
made some disparaging remarks. As Lumsden stood relaxing after the
parade he was approached by one of his men who offered to ambush and
kill Lawrence as he travelled home. Loyalty to one’s comrades even at the
price of death was expected on the battlefield. After the siege of Malakand
and Chakdara Fort had been lifted, during an advanced up the Swat Valley,
the cavalry was chasing the tribesmen along a narrow causeway. However,
two officers far in the lead got into trouble and were unhorsed and injured.
Col. Adam the CO, with another officer and two sowars charged forward to
fend off sword blows and rescue their comrades. Yet another detachment
led by Lt. Maclean arrived but he was killed as he attempted to lift an
injured officer onto his horse. Both the CO and Maclean were awarded VCs
and a third was awarded to Lord Fincastle (16th Lancers), who was
attached to the Guides, thus establishing a record three VCs won by a
regiment in one day. In its first 50 years, the corps had won seven VCs
(including the one awarded to Lord Fincastle).
For the next 50 years till Independence, the Guides remained on
active service on the Frontier as well as overseas. The operations varied in
magnitude from ‘weekend wars’ to battling full scale insurrections and
finally the ultimate test of two World Wars. The Guides was the last of the
composite corps in the British India Army. With modernization during the
inter war years, the corps was broken up into its cavalry and infantry
components and they vacated Mardan which had been their home for 90
years. However, the bond that had been cemented over years of living and
fighting together continues to remain firm as also its fighting spirit.