Captain R L C Wilkinson, 37th Bombay Lancers (Baluch Horse), 1904

Photograph by Sidney Herbert Dagg (1862-1930), Mussoorie and Allahabad, 1904.

Captain Roland Langharne Clennell Wilkinson was born 16 January 1873. 'The London Gazette' (17 February 1891) records his promotion to 2nd lieutenant in the Northumberland Artillery (Western Division) and, in the 25 November 1902 issue, amongst other Indian Army officers, his promotion to captain. In this portrait photograph he wears the full dress uniform of the 37th Bombay Lancers (Baluch Horse), formerly the 7th Bombay Lancers (Baluch Horse). Wilkinson died, aged 32, on 25 October 1905, while serving at Quetta.

The 7th Bombay Lancers was first raised in 1885 by Major A L McNair at Shikarpur, Scinde as the 7th Bombay Cavalry (Jacob-Ka-Rissallah) and was recruited largely from men of the 3rd Scinde Horse (Belooch Horse), which had been disbanded in 1882.

The regiment was an all-Muslim unit consisting of Pathans and Baluchis, and in 1886 was renamed the 7th Bombay Cavalry (Belooch Horse). In 1890, the regiment was reclassed and renamed as the 7th Bombay Lancers (Belooch Horse) and under Lord Kitchener's 1903 Indian Army reforms, Bombay cavalry regiments had thirty added to their existing number, so it was retitled as the 37th Bombay Lancers (Baluch Horse).