Stations of British Army troops in India

Sources for locating the stations of British Army regiments, battalions or batteries in India.

See also:

• Stations of the Royal Artillery in India

Army stations are frequently listed in directories and publications such as The Army and Navy Gazette, the United Service Magazine and even some newspapers. These may be consulted online where available, refer Military periodicals online, or in national libraries. This article details some online sources that may provide significant shortcuts when it comes to finding regiments.

Also see

• British Army - Locating a regiment for details of information available in online editions of the Monthly Army List, New Annual Army List, Indian Army List, and other publications.

Nafziger Collection documents

The following table links to pdf documents from The Nafziger Collection of Orders of Battle, Combined Arms Research Library [CARL], (U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth USA) which are derived from sources such as The Army and Navy Gazette.

Please note that some years do not contain information relating to the Royal Artillery.

Although there does not appear to be any information relating to British troops in India after 1904 in the Nafziger Collection documents, there is information available prior to 1862. There is a Finding Aid (link to a pdf download which depending on your browser you may need to locate in your downloads folder), (or see External links below) to assist in navigating the titles available for viewing, and the links to those titles.

The Finding Aid is Searchable. There are title headings such as Stations of British Troops in India (available 1836-1904), British Regiments Serving in India, (available 1816-1835), Distribution of the British Army (available 1836-1868, 1872, 1899-1903) Stations of the British Army (available 1869-1904). The latter two titles include British troops in India.

Note that for some computers/browsers in the past it was not possible to search the Finding Aid, but this situation may have improved. If this is still the situation, "British Regiments Serving in India" 1816 is located on page 167. "Distribution of the British Army" 1836 is located on page 168. Alternatively use your internet Search engine with terms such as nafziger "Stations of the British Army" and a date.

Stations of British Troops in India 1862-1904

	5 April 1862	4 April 1863	2 April 1864	1 April 1865
31 March 1866	2 November 1867	4 April 1868	10 April 1869	1 April 1870
1 April 1871		5 March 1873	7 March 1874	3 April 1875
1 March 1876	7 March 1877 ?	4 January 1879	5 July 1879	4 September 1880	4 December 1880
2 April 1881	July 1882	August 1882	2 September 1882	2 December 1882	3 March 1883
2 February 1884	4 October 1884	7 March 1885	June 1885	5 September 1885	3 July 1886
		7 May 1887	3 March 1888	3 August 1889	1 March 1890
7 March 1891		21 July 1894	23 March 1895	19 October 1895	4 July 1896
2 January 1897	17 July 1897	18 September 1897		23 July 1898	27 August 1898
21 September 1898	17 December 1898	July 1899	March 1900	May 1900	June 1900
	April 1901	July 1901	August 1901	November 1901	December 1901
February 1902	April 1902	May 1902	July 1902	October 1902	December 1902
July 1903	19 November 1904

At times the above links may not be accessible. In that situation some previously archived Nafziger Collection links may be accessed though the following 2017 archive.org link.

Afghanistan 1878-1882

• Regiments, Battalions, Batteries, &c Serving in Afghanistan, 1878 -1881
• Distribution of the South Afghanistan Field Force, 14 January 1879
• Strength and Distribution of the Southern Afghanistan Field Force 16 May 1879
• 2nd (Khyber) Division North Afghanistan Field Force, September 1879
• Troops Warned for Movement to Afghanistan, 14 December 1879
• Strength of the Kabul Field Force 31 December 1879
• British Troops in the Kurram District, Afghanistan, April 1880
• British Garrisons in Afghanistan, 30 June 1880
• Distribution of Troops on Line of Communication in Afghanistan 30 June 1880
• British Forces in Afghanistan, 10th August 1880
• British Forces in Southern Afghanistan Assigned to the Relief of Kandahar 17 August 1880
• British Forces in Southern Afghanistan, 24 August 1880
• Stations of 1st & 2nd Divisions of the Southern Afghanistan Field Force 30 October 1880
• British Garrisons in Afghanistan, 31 March 1882
• Distribution of Troops on Line of Communications in Afghanistan 31 March 1882

1867-1876

1867-1874

Pages from various Army Medical Department: Report for the Year.. See Military periodicals online - Army Medical Department Report. The tables include information for "Stations during the Year". Google Books, Archive.org, Hathi Trust Digital Library

Stations during the Year

1867 * Bengal Madras Bombay

1868 * Bengal Madras Bombay

1869 - Madras Bombay

1870 Bengal Madras Bombay

1871 Bengal Madras Bombay

1872 Bengal Madras Bombay

1873 Bengal Madras Bombay

1874 Bengal Madras Bombay

* Pages require rotation.

1871-1876

From the publication Vital statistics of India. Vol. IV, Annual returns from 1871 to 1876. British Army of India, Native Army and jails of Bengal from the National Library of Scotland’s online collection “Medical History of British India”.

Details of the number of soldiers are also included.

Information is provided at the end of June for each year, during the summer, so some regiments are at hill station cantonments.

Note: pdf links may be slow to open.

Distribution of the European Army of the Bengal Presidency

1871 (file page 72) htm pdf

1872 (file page 204) htm pdf

1873 (file page 336) htm pdf

1874 (file page 466) htm pdf

1875 (file page 592) htm pdf

1876 (file page 722) htm pdf

Distribution of the European Army of Madras and Bombay

1871 (file page 73) htm pdf

1872 (file page 205) htm pdf

1873 (file page 337) htm pdf

1874 (file page 467) htm pdf

1875 (file page 593) htm pdf

1876 (file page 723) htm pdf

1910,1913,1914

• Stations of Units of the Regular Forces, Militia, Special, Reserve, and Territorial Force by [Great Britain] War Office. His Majesty’s Stationery Office (HMSO)
  • No.27. 1st January 1910 Archive.org. Google Books
  • No.28. 1st April 1910 Archive.org. Google Books
  • No.29. 1st July 1910 Archive.org. Google Books.
  • No.40. 1st April 1913 slv.vic.gov.au
  • No.45. 1st July 1914 Image 86 from the file before for April 1913. slv.vic.gov.au

University of Oxford seems to have most editions No. 1-27, 29-40, 42-45 (not digitised), from  the catalogue entry and further links. No 45 is perhaps the last publication. 

1911 England and Wales Census

This National Archives catalogue entry shows the regiments in India which were included in the 1911 Census. The items (17 in total) are RG 14/34978-34992, 34995, 34997. It appears that there were additional regiments in India at the time which are not included in the list, so the census is not complete for British Army regiments, or British Army personnel in India. Searching the 1911 census data, on findmypast and Ancestry, and perhaps other sites, is generally free to search, but pay to view data. Note that for searching findmypast the "County" is Overseas Military. You may be able to access data for free at some institutions, see Miscellaneous tips - Access some subscription websites with a Library Card.

Great War Forum topic by Black Sapper (Peter Holden) "1911 Census for Military – Overseas" contains pdf links to 1911 Overseas Military Census data on Ancestry including that for India, in post 13 and subsequent posts. In addition, links are provided for census information for army regiments in England, Wales and Ireland, and the Royal Navy, overseas and England and Wales.

Note the pdf images are only available to logged in members of GWF. To actually access the information in the pdf files, you must be logged in to Ancestry, a pay site.

Also see Great War Forum topic "Military Units in India - 1911 Census Index".

Other sources

• Where were the British Regiments in India and when "Indian portion of In Search of Forlorn Hope by John M Kitzmiller" - lists the location/year of all British regiments that served in India and related regions. (Regiments, Locations). From Genealogy in India, isp.ans.com.au/~rampais, archived. Locations given can be quite general. Kitzmillers's two volume book is available at the British Library UIN: BLL01010128905, full title In Search of the 'Forlorn Hope': A Comprehensive Guide to Locating British Regiments and their Records (1640-WWI).
• "Her Majesty’s British Forces in the Bengal and North-Western Provinces, corrected to 1st July 1859" from The Quarterly Army List of Her Majesty's British and Indian Forces on the Bengal Establishment corrected to 5 July 1859 Google Books
• Location of British Army Infantry and Cavalry Regiments 1878-1891 Remembering The Past, now an archived webpage. There are references to Regiments in India
• The British Army 1902 by Graham E.Watson from Orbat.com, now an archived website. Select pages 6 and 7 of the document for India.
• "The Trooping Season. British Reliefs. Indian Reliefs" "The sanctioned programme of reliefs of British and Indian units to be carried out during 1913-14 is published". Changes in location for various regiments.The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser 19 February 1913, Page 3. NewspaperSG. Singapore Government.
• The Army In India – July 1914 by Prof Charles Tustin Kamps. Orders of Battle, now archived. Note, this is summer time, so some regiments are at hill station cantonments.
• Also see British Army - Locating a regiment for details of more information available, including in online editions of the Monthly Army List, New Annual Army List and Indian Army List.
  • Includes from The United Service Journal and Naval and Military Magazine which changed title over time, "Corrected to 15 November 1884" page 669, 1884 and "Corrected to 26 March 1888", page 373 [1888). HathiTrust.

External links

• Nafziger Orders Of Battle Collection Finding Aid 2012 edition. Archive.org. Use the Finding Aid to locate titles, however the URLs (links) within this volume are no longer valid. The first part of a 2012 URL/link http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/CGSC/ must be replaced by https://usacac.army.mil/sites/default/files/documents/ to form a URL/link such as https://usacac.army.mil/sites/default/files/documents/carl/nafziger/862DAB.pdf