Bengal Artillery

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East India Company Army

For the volunteer force formed in 1925, see Bengal Artillery (AFI).

The Bengal Artillery, part of the Bengal Army, consisted of:

The Bengal Artillery were the first artillery in India to be tractor drawn.

FIBIS resources

  • "Looking for Gunner Hurley in India" by Malcolm Hurley Mills and Lawrie Butler
Part 1 FIBIS Journal Number 17 (Spring 2007) Part 2 FIBIS Journal Number 22 (Autumn 2009)
  • "The Walsh Family and the Cawnpore Massacre" by Paddy Walsh FIBIS Journal Number 31 (Spring 2014) pages 3-15.
William Walsh joined the Bengal Artillery in 1834, as a married man, and was a pensioned Sergeant of the Artillery , working for the East Indian Railway at the time of the massacre.
Refer FIBIS Journals for details of how to access these Journals.

Chronology

  • 1749 first company raised
  • 1756 company perished in the Black Hole of Calcutta
  • 1765 re-formed with four companies
  • 1770 fifth company raised and the five companies formed into a battalion of total complement 548 Europeans plus 2912 Lascars employed hauling the guns
  • 1778 re-formed into one European Regiment (7 field and 1 mounted or garrison company) and three Native battalions (8 companies each)
  • 1779 re-formed into 2 European battalions of 5 companies with 6 companies of Lascars to each company
  • 1787 Artillery constituted as one of the brigades of the Army
  • 1801 draught horses used for the first time instead of bullocks for field artillery; formation of the Horse Artillery

All sepoy artillery units were abolished after the Indian Mutiny and the European battalions became part of the Royal Artillery. In 1862 the Bengal Artillery was absorbed into the Royal Artillery as the 16th, 19th, 24th and 25th Brigades.[1]

British Library

Uniform

  • Uniform - Blue
  • Facings - Scarlet
  • Badge - Same as Royal Artillery

Related Articles

References

  1. The New Artillery Amalgamation, pages 606-607 (December 1861) from Colburn’s United Service Magazine, Volume 97, 1861 Part 3 Google Books

Historical books online

  • "Memoir of Colonel Thomas Deane Pearse of the Bengal Artillery, containing numerous, and interesting extracts from his original correspondence, connected with some of the most important events in the Government of India" The British Indian Military Repository, Volume 1, 1822, and Volume 2, 1823 He was appointed Major in 1768
Part 1, Volume 1, page 1, Part 2, Volume 1, page 153, Part 3, Volume 2, page 1, Part 4, Volume 2, page 249 Google Books
  • The Travel Letters of Mrs. Kindersley, transcriptions from the book first published in 1777 Letters from the Island of Teneriffe, Brazil, the Cape of Good Hope, and the East Indies. The letters from India commence with Letter 18 in Pondicherry June 1765 and conclude with letter 67 from Calcutta in 1768. Note: Only the first page of the letter is displayed, click on the image for a full transcription. travel-letters.org. This book appears also to be available on "Eighteenth century collections online", for more details see Subscription websites-online newspapers, journals and directories.
Jemima Kindersley, (1741-1809). Wife of Lieutenant Nathaniel Kindersley (1732–1769) of the Royal Artillery and later, from 27 July 1764, Captain in the East India Company's Bengal Artillery.
War Services: Volume I published 1877. Google Books version; HathiTrust Digital Library version where maps can be rotated.
War Services, Volume II, published 1877. Covers the period from 1814. Archive.org version; HathiTrust Digital Library version.