| 17th Infantry (The Loyal Regiment) | |
|---|---|
| Active | 1858-1922 |
| Country | Indian Empire |
| Branch | Army |
| Type | Infantry |
| Part of | Bengal Army (to 1895) Bengal Command |
| Uniform | Red; faced white |
| Engagements | 1878–80 Afghanistan 1885 Suakin Tofrek |
| Commanders | |
| Colonel-in-Chief | Edward VII (1904) |
The17th Infantry (The Loyal Regiment) was an infantry regiment of theBengal Army, later of the unitedBritish Indian Army. It was formed atPhillour in 1858 byMajor J. C. Innes from men of the 3rd, 36th and 61stBengal Native Infantry regiments who remained loyal to theBritish East India Company[1] during theIndian Mutiny, and designatedThe Loyal Purbiah Regiment.[2]
These men were designated asPurbiyas,Purbiah, orPoorbeah meaning Easterners and were recruited from the region stretching fromAgra toBihar.[3]
It was subsequently re-designated as follows:-
Its final designation came in 1903 with theKitchener reforms of the Indian Army.[2]
The regiment took part in theSecond Anglo-Afghan War, theBattle of Tofrek the siege ofSuakin in theSudan Campaign andWorld War I. During World War I they were part of the22nd (Lucknow) Brigade, first attached to the8th Lucknow Division in India on internal security duties the brigade was then transferred to Egypt as part of the11th Indian Division.[4]
After World War I the infantry of the Indian Army was restructured by the mass amalgamation of single battalion units into a smaller number of multi-battalion regiments. The 17th Infantry was one of nine regiments disbanded in 1922, as a result of this reform.[5]
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