The Rifle Brigade

Chronology

• 1800 raised as an Experimental Corps of Riflemen by Colonel Coote-Manningham and Lt-Col the Hon. William Stewart
• 1802 redesignated the 95th Regiment of Foot, the 95th Rifles
• 1816 became The Rifle Brigade
• 1823 became The Prince Consort's Own Rifle Brigade
• 1958 renamed the 3rd Green Jackets Regiment of the Green Jackets Brigade.
• 1966 amalgamated to become 3rd Battalion Royal Green Jackets Regiment
• 2007 became the 4th Battalion of The Rifles.

Service in British India

1st Battalion

• 1880 India
• 1881 Bombay
• 1885 Jhansi
• 1888 Burma
• 1921 Cawnpore
• 1925 Peshawar
• 1925 Jullunder

2nd Battalion

• 1857 Indian Mutiny
• 1905 Chaubattia
• 1908 Calcutta
• 1911 Rawalpindi
• 1913 Kuldana

A thread from the 2nd Battalion 95th Rifles Forum provides the following details

• Dec 1911 2/RB stationed at Fort William, Calcutta.
• Jan 1912 2/RB form guard of honour for King's departure from Calcutta.
• Jan 1912, 2/RB trained to Pindi
• Feb 1912 Brigade training and practice in hill Warfare in Baracao, "some 15 miles towards Murree".
• Oct 1912 2/RB march to Rawal Pindi.
• 1913, Kuldana, Murree and Rawal Pindi. Kuldana to West ridge Nov 1913
• 1914 In Murree hills, expected to sail for England Oct 29 in Dongola. Telegram to embark arrives Aug 26. Aug 29 all baggage in Pindi. Sept 02, left Kuldana, Sept 06, arrived Pindi. Trained to Bombay, arrive Sept 08. Embarked S.S. Somali, same day. Landed Liverpool Oct 22 1914. The Dongola carried the Berkshires from India.

3rd Battalion

• 1857 Indian Mutiny
• 1864 Mohmand Expedition
• 1889 India
• 1892 Jullunder
• 1894 Peshawar
• 1897 Kuldana
• 1897 Tochi Valley Expedition
• 1901 Meerut

4th Battalion

• 1873 India
• 1878 Afghanistan
• 1881 North West Frontier
• 1885 Jhansi
• 1885 Calcutta
• 1888 Dinapore
• 1888 Burma
• 1913 Dagshai

Camel Corps

The Camel Corps was formed at Lucknow on 5 April 1858 from drafts of 100 men each from the 2nd and 3rd Battalion, The Rifle Brigade, to which were eventually added 200 Sikhs. The Camel Corps was used in 1858 and 1859 to support columns of soldiers despatched during the latter stages of the Indian Mutiny to hunt down groups of rebels that had fled into the countryside of Rohilkund and Oudh, east of Delhi., and was disbanded on 1 June 1860.

Battalions of the Territorial Force in WW1

The 18th, 23rd and 24th went to India. The 21st went to India via Egypt

The 18th came into being about 11/11/15. Their time overseas was spent in Rangoon, based in Sale Barracks, with detachments at Port Blair, in the Andaman Islands, guarding the convict settlement there. Detachments went on escort duty to Basra (and qualified for The Victory Medal), and were employed on the minesweepers patrol at Bombay.

The 23rd were at Multan at first and then Bareilly with one company in Amritsar for May 1916. The 24th were at Sialkot with detachments at different times at Jullunder, Amritsar, Lahore and Ferozepore and was involved in internal security duties.

An article in the 1928 Rifle Brigade Chronicle, pages 162 to 182 inclusive, by Captain R.C. Bridgeman, covers the formation of these battalions, with a precis of each battalion’s war record.

Regimental journal

The Rifle Brigade Chronicle was published annually from 1891, for the year 1890, and is available at the British Library. Seven editions are available to read online, refer below.

External Links

• The Rifle Brigade Wikipedia
  Green Jackets Brigade Wikipedia
  
• Royal Green Jackets Wikipedia
  The Rifles Wikipedia
  
• The Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own including deployments: 1st Battalion, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Battalion, 4th Battalion Regiments.org, an archived site.
• The Royal Green Jackets (Rifles) Museum covers the 43rd, 52nd and 60th Regiments and the Rifle Brigade
  • Rifle Brigade In The Camel Corps
  • Photographs: 1st Battalion Rifle Brigade in India in 1921
  • Some regimental archives are available at Hampshire Archives and Local Studies
• Rifle Brigade Memorials from Stephen Lewis’ Soldiers Memorials
• Photograph of 2nd Battalion “B” Company’s Football Team. Winners of the Minerva Challenge Cup, Calcutta 1911
• Photograph: Arthur Calkin in Dagshai, India 1913, with a group of soldiers outside the barracks, and a second photograph Family website. He was in the 4th Battalion, The Rifle Brigade
• DEG Quelch, far from Flanders He was in the 18th (London) Battalion of the Rifle Brigade, based at Table Island, where there was a wireless station, near the Cocos Islands. "Great War London"
• British Parliamentary Question re withdrawal of Rifle Brigade (24th Battalion) from India 06 March 1919

Historical books online

• The History of the Rifle Brigade (the Prince Consort's Own) formerly the 95th by Sir William H. Cope 1877 Indian Service 1857, page 347 Archive.org
• "Record of the services of the Rifle Brigade, in India in 1857 and 1858" Colburn's United Service Magazine and Naval and Military Journal, 1871 Part 3, pages 554-560 and 1872 Part 1, page 59-63 Google Books and Hathi Trust Digital Library.
• The Rifle Brigade Century: An Alphabetical List of the Officers of the Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort’s Own) (Regular Battalions) from 1800 to 1905 1905 Archive.org
• India from page 39, Vestigia by Lieut.- Colonel Charles à Court Repington 1919. Archive.org. The author came to India c late 1877 to join the 4th Battalion Rifle Brigade, took part in the 2nd Afghan War, but then returned to England on medical grounds (due to Peshawar fever (malaria)) c 1878/1879. Charles à Court Repington 1858-1925. Wikipedia.
• The Rifle Brigade Chronicle for
  • 1890 1891
    • 1st Battalion in Burma and India
    • 3rd Battalion in India
    • 4th Battalion returns from Burma to England
  • 1895 (Sixth Year) 1896
    • "The 4th Battalion in Burma 1888-89"
    • 3rd Battalion in Rawal Pindi
  • 1897 (Eighth Year ) 1898
    • "The Tochi Valley Expedition 1897"
    • 3rd Battalion Record includes a list of details of 112 deaths during the year, mostly on the Tochi Valley Expedition
    • 3rd Battalion letter from Umballa
  • 1901 (Twelfth Year) 1902
    • 3rd Battalion letter from Meerut
  • 1902 (Thirteenth Year) 1903
    • Khud Climbing at Kailana (3rd Battalion)
    • 3rd Battalion letter from Meerut
  • 1904 (Fifteenth Year) 1905
    • 'The 3rd Battalion at the Coronation Durbar, Delhi, 1902-03"
    • 3rd Battalion letters from Meerut and Landour
  • 1905 (Sixteenth Year) 1906. All years from Archive.org

For those in North America and some other countries, editions for years up to c 1923 are available on Google Books and the Hathi Trust Digital Library. Editions beyond this date may be available through academic library access.

Findmypast, pay website, includes a database "Rifle Brigade Chronicle 1890-1920", located in Armed Forces & Conflict/Regimental & Service Records, with a complete run of editions. Currently (2018/11) however, this database is only searchable, (by name or keyword) with the search result showing a page of the Chronicle (and if required adjoining pages) and not browsable as an online book.

• Large Game Shooting in Thibet and the North West by Alexander Kinloch, Rifle Brigade and later King’s Royal Rifle Corps. Part I 1869, Part II 1876. Later editions have titles…in Thibet, the Himalayas, and Northern India (1885) and … in Thibet, the Himalayas, Northern and Central India (1892). Part I 1869 Google Books; Part II 1876 Hathi Trust Digital Library; Revised edition 1885 Archive.org; 3rd edition, revised and enlarged 1892 Archive.org.
• A Summer in High Asia, being a record of sport and travel in Baltisan and Ladakh by Capt F E S Adair, late Rifle Brigade 1899 Archive.org