The 3rd Bombay Light Cavalry

"Ran Vir Jai Sada!"

My next unit for The Men Who Would be Kings is the 3rd Bombay Light Cavalry which has a long and distinguished history. I decided to model them as D Squadron which was composed of Jat Sikhs. I decided to base them using the alternative basing method of 3, 2, 1 with a total of 8 figures for a Regular Cavalry unit.

The Subadar Major.

The 3rd Regiment of Bombay Light Cavalry was raised at Sirur on 4 May 1820 by Major Peter Delamotte. It had 3 squadrons on its establishment, of which one was provided by the 1st Regiment of Cavalry and one squadron from the 2nd Regiment of the Cavalry. The rest were inducted from suitable Indian Officers and NCOs from 1st and 3rd Battalions of Poona Auxiliary Infantry, which were disbanded in 1820.

Regimental History:

• 1820 3rd Regiment of Bombay Light Cavalry
• 1861 3rd Regiment of Bombay Silladar Light Cavalry
• 1861 3rd Regiment of Bombay Light Cavalry
• 1876 3rd (The Queen's Own) Regiment of Bombay Light Cavalry
• 1903 33rd Queen Victoria's Own Light Cavalry
• 1911 33rd Queen Victoria's Own Light Cavalry
• 1921 33rd/34th Cavalry
• 1922 17th Queen Victoria's Own Poona Horse
• 1927 The Poona Horse (17th Queen Victoria's Own Cavalry)
• 1947 To Indian Army
• 1950 The Poona Horse (17th Horse)

The unit was amalgamated in 1921 into the present regiment, the battle honors of which tell of service in three Afghan wars, in Persia, Abyssinia and China, as well as in World War I. The regiment has fought with distinction in the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pakistani wars, with an officer winning India's highest gallantry award, the Param Vir Chakra, in each war.

Campaign Service:

First Afghan War
Battle of Kandahar-1842
Battle of Ghunzee-1842
Battle of Kabul-1842
Battle of Meanee-1843
Battle of Hyderabad-1843
Persian Conflict
Battle of Kooshab-1856
Indian Mutiny
Battle of Sindwaha-1858
Abyssinia 1867-68

Second Afghan War 1879-80
Battle of Girishk
Battle of Maiwand
Battle of Kandahar-1880

China

Boxer Rebellion
Battle of Peking-1900

World War I
First Battle of Ypres-1914
Battle of Givenchy
Battle of La Basse-1914
Battle of Armentiers-1914
Battle of the Somme-1916
Battle of Flers–Courcelette-1916
Battle of Cambrai-1917
Battle of Shaiba
Battle of Ctesiphon
Capture of Damascus

Third Afghan War

Take that you bandits!

World War II
First Battle of El Alamein

Annexation of Hyderabad-1948

Indo-Pakistani War of 1965

Indo-Pakistani War of 1971

The Poona Horse is currently an Armored Regiment in the Armored Corps of the Indian Army. 

The motto of the regiment is ‘रण वीर जय सदा’ (Ran Vir Jai Sada); which translates to 'the gallant warrior, ever victorious'.