The Frontier Force Regiment
The Frontier Force Regiment is a 1957 amalgamation of three regiments: The Corps of Guides, the Frontier Force Regiment, and the Pathan Regiment, with its regimental center at Abbottabad.
The Corps of Guides
The Regiment traces its history back more than 150 years to the Corps of Guides Cavalry and Infantry raised by Lt. H.D. Lumsden at Peshawar on 14th Dec 1846. This was amalgamated with the 1st Punjab Cavalry on 18 May 1849, the official birthday of the Force, to become the Trans-Frontier Brigade. For a century this force was celebrated in military circles the world over as the ‘Piffers’ - Punjab Irregular Force. These tough and hardy hill fighters from the rugged, barren outbreak of the Afghan-Indian border were quick to find affinity with the British highlanders, whose traditions were similar. Adapting the swirling Scottish Kilt to their own use, they marched into the battle to the skirl of pipes plying such stirring airs as Scotland for Ever, Cock of the North, Athol Highlanders, Scotland the Brave, Come Lasses and Lads, Colonel Bogey, With a Hundred Pipes and many more regimental marches they made their own.
Lumsden was given the task of raising the Corps of Guides which he did in 1846 whilst still a young subaltern of only eight years service. He had considerable experience of service in the Northwest, having fought in Afghanistan with Pollock’s avenging army and in the Sutlej campaign, receiving a wound at Sobraon.
He had complete freedom to arm and dress his corps according to his own wishes. He regarded the tight-fitting scarlet uniforms of the British army to be unsuitable for the Indian climate and set about dressing his officers and men in loose fitting clothes that blended with the landscape. He bought all the white cotton he could find locally and had it taken to the river where it was soaked and impregnated with mud. Lumsden is credited with being not only the founder of the famous Corps of Guides but with the invention of khaki. He commanded the regiment for 5 years with Major W S R Hodson as his second in command. He took part in 16 campaigns in that time including the siege of Multan. For a while, he was on political duty in Kandahar, thus missing the start of the Indian Mutiny. In 1860, he was put in command of the Guides for the second time. At about this time he was wounded when an assassin made an attempt on his life.
The Corps of Guides was the most famous of the Indian Army regiments during the period of British rule. They had a reputation for bravery and efficiency that was the envy of all the other units. The North-West Frontier where they operated was rarely quiet and although many of the cavalry and infantry regiments saw frequent action there, none was engaged more than the Guides.
The corps as raised consisted of one troop of cavalry and two companies of infantry, about 300 men in all. It was the brainchild of Sir Henry Lawrence perhaps inspired by Napoleon’s elite Guides. Recruitment was made easier by offering a higher rate of pay than normal. This attracted a large number of applicants so Lumsden could select men of high intelligence. One of their first tasks was a peacekeeping role in Lahore some time after the death of Maharajah Ranjit Singh. An effort by the Maharani to seize power was foiled and the Guides escorted her out of the Punjab, a task more dangerous than it sounds as rescue attempts were expected.
The Frontier Force Regiment
12th Frontier Force Regiment and the 13th Frontier Force Rifles shared a common origin in recruiting veterans of the Sikh Wars - first in 1845 and second in 1848-49 between Punjab Government and East India Company.
The 12th came from the infantry element of the Frontier Brigade authorized in 1846 after the First Sikh War, consisting of a company of artillery and four regiments of Infantry. Colonel Henry Lawrence, the Agent to the Governor-General on the Frontier part of Punjab till 1901, now present day Pakistani Province NWFP, asked if he might also raise a small irregular body of men one troop mounted and two companies of infantry - to be called ‘Guides’. The Punjab Frontier Force was established on 18th May 1849 as the Transfrontier Brigade. It became the Punjab Irregular Force in 1851 and finally the Punjab Frontier Force in 1865.
There were originally six Punjab Infantry regiments and five of cavalry as well as artillery. The four Sikh regiments came from the disbanded regiments of Sikhs following Gough’s victory at Sobraon (10th Feb 1846) at the end of the First Sikh War. Together with some artillery they formed the Frontier Brigade. This name was dropped the following year and they became the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Regiments of Sikh Local Infantry. In 1851, the four regiments of Sikh Infantry became part of the Punjab Irregular Force and the letters ‘PIF’ became famous throughout the Empire and the men who served in it were proud to call themselves ‘Piffers’ long after the name changed. Despite their mandate to serve in the Frontier areas, there was great keenness to follow the drum wherever it might lead and, at that time, there was no shortage of drums in Britain’s Indian territories. The 4th Sikhs volunteered for Burma in 1852 as did the 3rd, but the 4th was accepted and served there for two years. All four regiments went to Central India in 1857 at the time of the first war of Independence of the people of India against foreign rule (called Great Mutiny by British) but the 4th, again, made the headlines even by the exacting military standards of the times.
They marched from Abbottabad to Delhi, 560 miles in thirty days in an Indian June, going into action on their arrival. The Guides beat this with their march from Mardan, a distance of 580 miles in twenty-two marching days but they were a combined cavalry-infantry corps and the infantry element had camels provided, one to every two foot soldiers.
In 1851 along with these four, the Corps of Guides were added to the Punjab Irregular Force. In 1857 it changed into 1st, 2nd (Hill), 3rd and 4th Regiment of Sikh Infantry, Punjab Irregular Force. On 19th Sept 1865, they were redesignated as the 1st, 2nd (Hill), 3rd and 4th h Regiment of Sikh Infantry, Punjab Frontier Force and in 1901 as 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Sikh Infantry. In 1903, the re-numbering was significant. The ‘Bengal block’ ended with the 48th Pioneers and the four regiments of Sikh Infantry became respectively the 51st, 52nd, 53rd and 54th Sikhs (Frontier Force). The Guides Infantry became, in 1911, Queen Victoria’s Own Corps of Guides (Frontier Force) Lumsden’s Infantry.
In 1922 the 51st was declared as 51st Prince of Wales’s Own Sikhs (Frontier Force). These four infantry regiments and the Corps of Guides went to form the 12th Frontier Force Regiment in 1923. The infantry became part of the 12th Frontier Force Regiment as they were the senior of the regiments forming the 6 battalions they kindly allowed the 51st-54th Sikhs to take the first four number battalions so that they could retain at least the numbers 1 to 4 (i.e the 51st Sikhs became the 1st battalion etc.). There were two battalions of the Guides infantry, so the first battalion became the 5th battalion of the new regiment and the 2nd bcame the 10th (training) battalion.
Despite their title, the regiments were never wholly Sikh, not even when first raised but they fought their way through the next century as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Sikhs since they had been raised principally from disbanded regiments of the Sikh Army. The 2nd Sikhs, in fact, was first composed almost entirely of Dogras, enlisted for the first time in the Army of the East India Company, together with a few Pathans and Gurkhas and it was this make-up which prompted its title of Hill Corps.
Peace Be Upon You!