Lead seal, 1st Regiment of Madras Light Cavalry, 1816 (c)

Lead seal, raised in reverse, with wooden handle, 1816 (c).

Originally raised as the 5th Regiment of Native Cavalry in 1787, the regiment became the 1st Regiment of Madras Native Cavalry in 1788. On account of the seniority of its Commandant, Major J C Tonyn, it was redesignated the 1st Regiment of Madras Light Cavalry in 1816, and this seal, which bears that title, would have been used by the regiment until it was restyled the 1st Madras Lancers in 1886. This seal was found in the Quarter Master's Store of its successor regiment, the 26th King George's Own Light Cavalry, in 1918.