Corps of Guides (British India)

The Corps of Guides was a regiment of Britain's Indian Army. It was a unit with a formidable reputation for excellence, innovation, individual initiative, endurance, daring and toughness in battle.

The brainchild of Sir Henry Lawrence, the Corps had modest beginings. When it was raised in Peshawar by Lt. Harry Lumsden in December 1846, it comprised just one troop of cavalry and two companies of infantry. However, it soon grew a fair deal in size and whatever it lacked in quantity, it never lacked in quality. It maintained the quirky 'cavalry and infantry combined in the same regiment' format for many years, and even when split into two separate components, the name lingered in both elements. The Corps of Guides was always part of the crack Frontier Force brigade and if the Frontier Force itself developed into an elite formation, then the Guides were the premier unit of the premier force. They were famous for being the first unit in the Indian or British Armies to dress in khaki. They were soon followed by the other Frontier Force regiments. Like the Greenjackets of the Napoleonic wars, and the SAS of our own times, they were often used in small detachments, usually supported by other reliable troops such as the Sikhs and Gurkhas, to act as 'force multipliers', due to the resourcefulness and courage manifest throughout their ranks.

Throughout its history the Corps was reorganized and renamed. It was known variously as:

• The Corps of Guides (1846)
• The Corps of Guides, Punjab Irregular Force (1857)
• Corps of Guides, Punjab Frontier Force (1865)
• Queen's Own Corps of Guides, Punjab Frontier Force (1876)
• Queen's Own Corps of Guides (1901)
• Queen's Own Corps of Guides (Lumsden's) (1904)
• Queen Victoria's Own Corps of Guides (Frontier Force) (Lumsden's) (1911).

In 1914 the cavalry and infantry components were split and the cavalry became successively:

• Queen Victoria's Own Corps of Guides (Frontier Force) (Lumsden's) Cavalry (1914)
• 10th Queen Victoria's Own Corps Of Guides Cavalry (Frontier Force) (1922)
• The Guides Cavalry (10th Queen Victoria's Own Frontier Force) (1927)

and the infantry:

• Queen Victoria's Own Corps of Guides (Frontier Force) (Lumsden's) Infantry (1914)
• 5th Bn (QVO Corps of Guides) 12th Frontier Force Regiment (1922)

The Guides are the subject of George John Younghusband's book, The Story of the Guides, first published in March 1908.

Creating an Elite

The first home of the Guides was at Kalu Khan, on the Yusufzai Plain, in the Peshawar Valley region. The first action was at Mughdara, in the Panitar Hills. Within two years, the little force of Guides had established a good name for itself, under Lumsden, its founder and sole British officer, such that when the Second Sikh War broke out in 1848, the unit was given authorisation for a three-fold increase in size, to 6 companies of infantry and 3 troops of cavalry. The Corps of Guides continued its good work and became established as the garrison unit of a key post on the frontier, the new fort of (Hoti ~) Mardan. It was from here, during the month of Ramadan, that the unit marched its way into history in 1857, passing from being an obscure unit on the Frontier to a corps d'elite known to all in India. And all it took was a march of nearly six hundred miles, accomplished in just over three weeks during the hottest month of the year and stopping only to cross all five great rivers that give the Punjab its name, and fight four small actions as light relief. But it was the end of the march that cemented the reputation of the Corps of Guides: on arrival at Delhi, the force of 600 Guides were settling down to a well-deserved rest when the rebel force launched another major attack. The exhausted defenders decided they could not hold on much longer unaided and called upon the new reinforcements to join the defence of the city as soon as they could. So, men who had just completed a march of some 580 miles were immediately called to battle. This battle was to be of such an intensity that no less than 350 of the 600 had become casualties within an hour of their arrival in Delhi. But among so many deaths, the legend was born: a century before a British unit would coin the phrase, the Indian Army proved that he who dares will usually win.

The analogy is often used and is usually unfounded, but not in this instance: the Corps of Guides really was the SAS of its day, with a reputation for hard-tabbing and for hard-fighting, for taking on a task whatever the odds, for producing results where the statistics dictated than none was possible, for producing results where no others could, for a fascination with the practicalities instead of the convention, for innovation in kit and in tactics, for being a tightly-bound band of brothers to whom many aspired but few got to be chosen, for being a team that nobody wished to let down and for a reputation second to none, Indian or British.

Literature

Rudyard Kipling's The Ballard of East and West is about the Guides.

• Lumsden of the Guides by Gen. Sir Peter Lumsden & G.R. Emslie.
• Memoirs of Sir Henry Daly (1905) by Maj. H. Daly.

Founding Figures

• Sir Harry Lumsden.
• W.S.R. Hodson. (the Hodson of: 'Hodson's Horse')
• G.N. Hardinge.
• Dr. R. Lyell. (MO).
• Frederick Battye.
• Wigram Battye.
• Sir Henry Daly, GCB, CIE.
• Walter Hamilton, VC.
• Surgeon A.H. Kelly. (MO).
• Arthur Hammond, VC.
• Daffadar Fateh Khan.
• Rissaldar Fateh Khan.
• Subedar Rasul Khan.
• Subedar Dilwar Khan.

The Girl Guides

The Girl Guides take their name from the Guides. In How Girls Can Help to Build Up the Empire, the Girl Guides' first handbook, it is explained:

On the Indian frontier the mountain tribes are continually fighting, and our troops there are renowned for their splendid achievement and gallant conduct. The best known of all is the corps called "The Guides" … To be a Guide out there means you are one who can be relied upon for pluck, for being able to endure difficulty and danger, for being able cheerfully to take up any job that may be required, and for readiness to sacrifice yourself for others. Girls can be just as good as men in these points if they like … The Guides in India are distinguished for their keenness and courage, and for their general handiness and resourcefulness under difficulties; in fact the world GUIDE has come to mean one who embodies these desirable qualities, including industry, practical commonsense and self-reliance.

See also

• Corps of Guides (Canada)

References

External links

• G.J. Younghusband's The Story of the Guides