45th (Rattray's Sikh) Regiment of Bengal Infantry during the Delhi Camp of Exercise, 1885 (c)

Photograph by Deen Dayal, India, 1885 (c).

The 45th's origins lay in the 1856 decision to raise a Corps of Military Police to control the Lower Provinces of Bengal, east of Behar, 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.

From an album of 82 photographs.