Indian cavalry regiment composition

[Guest]

Evening all,

I am trying to find out what the composition of Indian cavalry regiments was during the Great War. I know they were made up of troops and squadrons but how many of each were in each higher up formation? I have had a look at The Long, Long Trail website but that only gives details for British cavalry regiments. Also how did the Indian VCOs fit in? Did British officers command the regiment, squadrons and perform the more important jobs like adjutant and quartermaster? The same question also applied to Indian SNCOs like the Daffadar-Major. One last thing, would the composition be different depending on what theatre of war the cavalry regiment served in?

Thanks in advance, Scott.

[Steven Broomfield]

When the 2nd Lancers (Gardner's) proceeded to France in 1914 they had 4 squadrons and an HQ squadron. Of these, I believe one squadron was composed each of Sikhs, Rajputs, Jats and Muslims (Hindustani and Rajput Muslims).

The regiment was part of the Mhow Cavalry Brigade with the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons and the 38th Central India Horse (on mobilisation, each Indian Cavalry brigade was composed of two Indian and one British unit). The other brigades in the division (2nd Cavalry) being the Meerut and the Secunderabad.

British Officers commanded (at that time) the regiment and the squadrons, plus various specialist tasks (MGs, etc): the 2nd Lancers had the Colonel, three Majors; two Captains (Adjutant and MO); two Lieutenants (one the MGO); and two 2nd Lieutenants (one the Quatermaster). As you will surmise, the VCO (Rissaldar Major, Rissaldars and Jemadars) pretty much ran the show, with the various Daffadar grades - Kot-D (Sgt Maj), Daffadar (Sergeant), Lance daffadr (Corporal) and Acting Lance Daffadar (Lance Corporal) - as the NCOs.

Michaeldr will no doubt chip in with more, plus some corrections.

[Hoplophile]

It may be worth noting that British cavalry regiments serving in India were organized into four relatively small squadrons, rather than the three somewhat larger squadrons of regiments stationed elsewhere. I presume that the chief reason for this was interoperability, both in terms of forming of the brigade for action en masse and the creation of small task forces.

[Steven Broomfield]

And also, IIRC, Indian regiments (after the 1922 reorganisations) were reformed into 3 Squadrons - possibly for the same reason (easier to have the Indian Cavalry on the Imperial standard than swap UK units about when posted to India).

[Guest]

Thanks very much for you informative replies, they have really helped a lot. The period I am most interested in is around 1895 to 1920 (Third Afghan War and operations in Waziristan) so it is a little out of this forum's scope.