Bengal Army

Bengal Army
Bengal Army
List of Bengal Army Regiments
Bengal Infantry Regiments
Bengal Infantry Finder tool
Bengal Artillery
Bengal Horse Artillery
Bengal Sappers and Miners
East India Company Army

The Bengal Army was one of the three Presidency Armies of the East India Company.

A list of Bengal Army regiments can either be found in the Bengal Army Category or alphabetically, by type, in Bengal Army Regiments.

Divisions

• Bengal Artillery
• Bengal Cavalry Regiments
• Bengal Infantry Regiments
• Bengal Sappers and Miners
• Bengal Staff Corps
• Commissariat

Records

Main article: East India Company Army

British Library

Records available in the British Library India Office holdings include:

• Bengal Army Records IOR/L/MIL/10 1716-1907 with subcategories
  • L/MIL/10/1-19 Bengal Army Lists, 1781-1849.
  • L/MIL/10/20-69 Bengal Service Army Lists, 1759-1858
  • L/MIL/10/70-74 Bengal Service Army Lists – Medical, c1765-1858
  • L/MIL/10/75-102 Bengal Services, 1860-1893
  • L/MIL/10/103-326 various subcategories, see within
    • Please note that the records IOR/L/MIL/10/122-129 Registers of Bengal Army European Soldiers 1788-1860 were commenced in 1831 and only contain men still serving in the Army at that date. If a man left the Army prior to 1831 for any reason, including death, he will not appear in these records. The Muster records are an alternative source of information.

The LDS (Mormons) have filmed many of these records as listed in this LDS Library catalogue entry, after a keyword search for Bengal Army Records

• Military Department Library: Bengal Army IOR/L/MIL/17/2 1791-1903 includes
  • Bengal Army List IOR/L/MIL/17/2/1-267 1819-1889
  • Bengal Army: General and Regimental Histories, Biographical Compilations, Indian Mutiny IOR/L/MIL/17/2/474-505 1845-1927

FIBIS resources

• FIBIS database: Soldiers’ and Widows’ Pension details -1896 IOR/ L/MIL/14/214 & 215. Includes previous members of the Bengal,Madras and Bombay Armies, including men from the Unattached List. May also include a few members of the Indian Army which officially was formed in 1895. These records are available on LDS microfilm 2029979 Items 1-2 with catalogue entry, however the FIBIS database record contains all the information available in the microfilm.
• FIBIS database: War Services of Officers of the Bengal Army 1863. Transcriptions from the book Ubique : War Services of all the Officers of HM's Bengal Army by Thomas C Anderson 1863
• Also see Books below.
• "Edward Squibb-Letters from a Bengal Cadet" by Charles Gordon Clark FIBIS Journal Number 28 (Autumn 2012) pages 15-24. Edward Squibb arrived in 1820. See FIBIS Journals for details of how to access this article

Books

Lives of the Officers of the Bengal Army, 1758-1834 by V. C .P. Hodson, 4 vols. (London, 1927-47) Note that the dates refer to the date of joining the Army. Alphabetically arranged and annotated with biographical and genealogical notices, giving details of: (1) rank and brief career history (2) family information (3) service records: regiments or battalions in which the officer served (4) references to wills if they exist, to monumental inscriptions, or to mentions in publications. The British Library shelfmark is OIR.355.332.

A description of the fascinating information contained in the appendices is explained in Bengal army officers names nationalities fatalities and a phantomUntold Lives blog of the British Library.

FIBIS has transcribed the indexes of these books, which are available on the FIBIS database.

The LDS (Mormon) Family History Library has filmed the above books (Library Catalogue entry). This India List thread recommends that all three LDS films be ordered, as there is a lot of cross referencing.

External Links

• Officers biographies - Bengal and Madras Armies from Macquarie University’s Seringapatam 1799
• The Bengal Army in The Victorians at war, 1815-1914: an encyclopedia of British military history by Harold E. Raugh, 2004

Historical books online

• Alphabetical List of the Officers of the Bengal Army from 1760 to 1834 compiled by Dodwell and Miles, 1838. Archive.org
• Alphabetical List of the Officers of the Bengal Army from 1760 to 1834 compiled by Dodwell and Miles, 1838 (Google Books)
• History of the Rise and Progress of the Bengal Army, Volume 1 by Arthur Broome 1850 (www.archive.org)
• The Presidential Armies of India by Colonel S Rivett-Carnac 1890 Archive.org has chapters on the Bengal Army
• The Officer's Complete Guide by Lieut. Archibald Swiney Haig 55th Regiment Bengal Infantry (published 1856) - contains General Orders, pay regulations etc (Google Books)
• First Annual Report of the Sanitary Commission for Bengal, 1864-65 Google Books. Mainly in respect of the Army
• Medical And Sanitary Report of the Native Army of Bengal for the year 1875 Archive.org
• Memoir of the late Lieut.-Colonel Richard Scott (From his Private Journals) from The Naval and Military Magazine Volumes 1, 2 and 3 1827-1828 Google Books and Archive.org

Part 1– Appointed 1768, Part 2- Sir Eyre Coote's Campaigns of 1781, 1782, and 1783, Part 3- Campaigns in India –includes General Stuart's Operations; General Goddard's March; and the Proceedings of the Bombay Army and its Government, Part 4- includes Popham’s Capture of Gwalior; General Goddard’s Operations, Campaigns of Lord Cornwallis, Siege of Bangalore, Part 5 March to Seringapatum

"Lieutenant -Colonel Richard Scott" from The East India Military Calendar: Containing the Services of General and Field Officers of the Indian Army, Volume 1, page 315 by by John Philippart 1823 Google Books

• "Major General Littellus Burrell" c1753-1827 Naval and Military Magazine Volume 2 1827, page 540 Archive.org
• Narrative of the mutiny of the officers of the army in Bengal, in the year 1766 Sir Henry Strachey, 1773 Google Books
• "Baggage of the Indian Army" Calcutta Review, Volume 11 January-June 1849, page 445 Google Books