Button, 13th Frontier Force Rifles, 1922-1947

Medium-sized black horn button by James Grove and Sons, Halesowen, with bugle horn surmounted by crown.

The 1st Regiment of Punjab Infantry was raised in 1849 by Captain John Coke. In 1851 it became part of the Punjab Irregular Force, formed to protect the North West Frontier of British India. The force was originally considered 'irregular' because it was not controlled by the three Presidency Armies but was instead controlled locally by the British Punjab Government. On 19 September 1865 it was reorganised and retitled as the Punjab Frontier Force (PFF), commonly nicknamed as 'The Piffers'.

The Punjab Frontier Force consisted of six Punjab infantry regiments (although the 3rd Punjab Infantry Regiment was disbanded in 1882). Lord Kitchener's wholescale reforms of the Indian Army in 1903 saw Punjab Regiments add '50' to their title (with the 1st to 4th Sikh Infantry Regiments taking 51st-54th).

The 1st Punjab Regiment became 55th Coke's Rifles; the 2nd became the 56th Punjabi Rifles; the 4th became 57th Wilde's Rifles; the 5th became 58th Vaughan's Rifles and the 6th Regiment became the 59th Scinde Rifles.

In 1922 the five Punjab regiments amalgamated to become the five battalions of the newly created 13th Frontier Force Rifles. Likewise, the four regiments of Sikh Infantry and the Corps of Guides formed five battalions of the newly formed 12th Frontier Force Rifles.

In 1945 the 13th Frontier Force Rifles was re-titled as Frontier Force Rifles, and in 1947, it was allocated to the Pakistan Army upon the Partition of India. In 1956 it was amalgamated with the Frontier Force Regiment (which was formerly the 12th Frontier Force Rifles) to become a new Frontier Force Regiment with a headquarters at Abbottabad, and it continues to serve with the Pakistan Army to this day.

From the Field Marshal Sir John Chapple Indian Army Collection.