Description
The Sixteenth Lancers already had a long and distinguished history when they sailed for India in 1822. Over
the next twenty-four years they fought in four wars, most famously in the Sutlej campaign against the Sikhs.
This book examines what regimental soldiering was like in India in those years. It draws on an unprecedented
range of mainly unpublished sources: official archives but also journals and letters of officers and men. An
important feature of the book is a detailed roll of every officer and man who served in the Sixteenth in the
Sutlej: where they came from, their trades, why they enlisted and what happened to them in the army and
afterwards. This approach illuminates such topics as literacy, suicide, and the number of men who opted to
remain in India.