The 123rd Outram's Rifles was an

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and m ...

regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation. In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscripted ...

of the British Indian Army.

History

It traced its origins to the 12th Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry, part of the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

Bombay Army The Bombay Army was the army of the Bombay Presidency, one of the three presidencies of Presidencies and provinces of British India, British India. It was established in 1662 and governed by the East India Company until the Government of India A ...

. It fought in the Battle of Khadki on 5 November 1817 in the

Third Anglo-Maratha War The Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817–1819) was the final and decisive conflict between the English East India Company and the Maratha Empire in India. The war left the Company in control of most of India. It began with an invasion of Maratha ter ...

and became the regiment's 1st Battalion in 1820. It was made a separate regiment in 1824, titled the 23rd Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry. The regiment took part in the

First Anglo-Afghan War The First Anglo-Afghan War ( fa, جنگ اول افغان و انگلیس) was fought between the British Empire and the Emirate of Kabul from 1838 to 1842. The British initially successfully invaded the country taking sides in a succession di ...

in 1839 and was renamed as the 23rd Regiment of Bombay Native Light Infantry in 1841 . Just before the

Indian Mutiny The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the fo ...

began in 1857, the 23rd took part in the Anglo-Persian War between 1856-1857. During the Indian Mutiny, the regiment remained loyal, like nearly all of the

. The regiment took part in the

Second Anglo-Afghan War The Second Anglo-Afghan War (Dari: جنگ دوم افغان و انگلیس, ps, د افغان-انګرېز دويمه جګړه) was a military conflict fought between the British Raj and the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1878 to 1880, when the l ...

from 1879 and the

Third Anglo-Burmese War The Third Anglo-Burmese War ( my, တတိယ အင်္ဂလိပ် – မြန်မာစစ်, Tatiya Anggalip–Mran cac), also known as the Third Burma War, took place during 7–29 November 1885, with sporadic resistance conti ...

from 1885 to the end of the war in 1887. It dropped "native" from its title in 1885 and was designated a

rifle regiment A rifle regiment is a military unit consisting of a regiment of infantry troops armed with rifles and known as riflemen. While all infantry units in modern armies are typically armed with rifled weapons the term is still used to denote regiments ...

in 1889, to become the 23rd Regiment (2nd Rifle Regiment) of Bombay Infantry. The 1900s also brought change to its title. The regiment became the 23rd Bombay Rifles in 1901, but only two years later it became the 123rd Outram's Rifles in 1903 as part of the Kitchener reforms of the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four ...

. The renaming was in honour of Lieutenant-General

Sir James Outram Lieutenant-General Sir James Outram, 1st Baronet (29 January 1803 – 11 March 1863) was a British general who fought in the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Early life James Outram was the son of Benjamin Outram of Butterley Hall, Butterley, Derby ...

who had served with the regiment as its first

adjutant Adjutant is a military appointment given to an officer who assists the commanding officer with unit administration, mostly the management of human resources in an army unit. The term is used in French-speaking armed forces as a non-commission ...

. In the early 1900s the regiment saw service against Diiriye Guure and his followers in British Somaliland, where it was transferred in late 1902, while a company was sent to Aden in 1903.

First World War

The regiment raised further battalions during the course of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

, seeing extensive service in the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

, with some soldiers attached to other units. Many of the regiment's soldiers also saw service on the Western Front while attached to other units. After the Palestine campaign began in 1917, the regiment joined the 234th Brigade, 75th Division. Outram's Rifles were involved in, among others, the

Third Battle of Gaza The Third Battle of Gaza was fought on the night of 1–2 November 1917 between British and Ottoman forces during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of World War I and came after the British Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) victory at the Bat ...

, begun on 31 October 1917, and the Megiddo Offensive in September 1918. War came to an end in the Middle East with the signing of an

Armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from the ...

with the Ottomans on 30 October 1918.

Post-War

After the war ended, the regiment was involved in efforts to quell an

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Wester ...

rebellion that broke out in 1920 in the

British Mandate of Iraq The Mandate for Mesopotamia ( ar, الانتداب البريطاني على العراق) was a proposed League of Nations mandate to cover Ottoman Iraq (Mesopotamia). It would have been entrusted to the United Kingdom but was superseded by the ...

against the British administration. As part of the reforms of the Indian forces, Outram's Rifles were amalgamated in 1922 with five other regiments, including the

125th Napier's Rifles The 125th Napier's Rifles was an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. At various points in history it was also known as the 1st Extra Battalion Bombay Native Infantry, the 25th Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry (1826–1889) and the 25t ...

, to form the

6th Rajputana Rifles The 6th Rajputana Rifles were an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. They were formed in 1922, after the Indian government reformed the army. They moved away from single battalion regiments to multi battalion regiments. The regiment s ...

. The 123rd became the 4th Battalion (Outram's). The 4th Battalion/6th Rajputana Rifles had the distinction of earning two Victoria Crosses during WWII.Sharma 1990, p. 106.

Famous Soldiers of the battalion

Chhelu Ram Chhelu Ram VC (10 May 1905 – 20 April 1943) was an Indian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. He was born to ...

Subedar Subedar is a rank of junior commissioned officer in the Indian Army; a senior non-commissioned officer in the Pakistan Army, and formerly a Viceroy's commissioned officer in the British Indian Army. History ''Subedar'' or ''subadar'' was th ...

Muhammad Zaman Khan

Battle honours

* Kirkee,

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkme ...

, Afghanistan 1879-80, Burma 1885-87

References

Britishempire.co.uk - 123rd Outram's Rifles
* {{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 Military units and formations established in 1824 British Indian Army infantry regiments Bombay Presidency Military units and formations disestablished in 1922 1824 establishments in the British Empire