Imperial Service Troops, 1908 (c)

Watercolour by Major Alfred Crowdy Lovett (1862-1919), 1908 (c).

The Imperial Service Troops scheme was created in 1888 from amongst the armies of the independent Indian States in British India. Soldiers from the participating princely states were trained under British supervision and were then used both on the North West Frontier and in places as far apart as China, during the Boxer Rebellion, and Somaliland. By 1900 the force numbered around 19,000 men.

This is the original artwork for an illustration in Major G F MacMunn's 'Armies of India', published in 1911.