1st Ceylon Regiment

Ceylon Rifle Regiment

Chronology

• 1795 independent companies of Malays in Ceylon transferred from Dutch to HEIC service
• 1801 became the Malay Regiment and increase to 10 companies with Dutch Malays from St Helena
• 1807 became the 1st Ceylon Regiment
• 1812 recruitment extended to Javanese
• 1814 converted to light infantry
• 1818 became the 1st Ceylon Regiment (Light Infantry)
• 1822 became the Ceylon Regiment (Riflemen)
• 1873 disbanded

Deployment

• 1795 Ceylon
• 1799 4th Mysore War
• 1803 1st Kandyan War
• 1815 2nd Kandyan War
• 1818 Uva Rebellion
• 1847 Hong Kong
• 1855 Ceylon
• 1866 Hong Kong
• 1870 Ceylon

Records

Except for the few short years when the East India Company was in control (1796-1802) records for Ceylon will not be found in the India Office Records at the British Library, but at The National Archives at Kew. For example, the description and succession books of the Ceylon Rifles covering years 1809-1872 are held under reference W025/638-641 (these include officers services) and reference WO23/158 finds the admission books for rhe Ceylon Rifles and Gun Lascars for the period May 1868-Sept 1876.

External Links

Ceylon Rifle Regiment Rootsweb
Ceylon Rifle Regiment www.regiments.org