Pugri badge, 45th Rattray's Sikhs, pre-1922

White metal badge in the form of a quoit and khanda.

The pugri or pagri is a form of headdress. Quoits, or chakram, are a traditional edged weapon from the Indian subcontinent, particularly associated with Sikh fighters. They take the form of a flattened metal ring of varying circumference, with a sharpened outer edge, which can be thrown or used in hand-to-hand combat. The khanda is a double-edged sword, symbolic to Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists.

The origins of the 45th Rattray's Sikh Regiment lay in the 1856 decision to raise a Corps of Military Police to control the Lower Provinces of Bengal, east of Bihar, where a rebellion had broken out. The person chosen to raise this body of men was Captain Thomas Rattray. His Bengal Police Battalion was raised in the Punjab, where a large number of ex-soldiers of the old Sikh Army, who had fought the British, were available. The Battalion played an important part in putting down the Indian Mutiny (1857-1859) and was designated as 45th (Rattray's Sikh) Regiment of Bengal Infantry in 1864. The regiment became the 45th Rattray's Sikhs in 1903 and formed the 3rd Battalion of the 11th Sikh Regiment in 1922.

From the Field Marshal Sir John Chapple Indian Army Collection.