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The
Warrant Officers and Sergeants, 2nd Bn The Queen’s
Royal Regiment, Haidra Kach, North West Frontier, 1920.
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No
sooner was the war over than the situation deteriorated in North
India and the return to England for demobilisation of the war-raised
battalions, which had begun in 1919, was delayed. The immediate
cause was the passing of the Rowlatt Acts by the Government of
India which gave it very wide powers to act against persons judged
guilty of sedition and caused much offence in the light of the
loyal support given by the people during the war. Angry demonstrations
took place throughout the Punjab, some of them involving violence
against British personnel. They culminated on 13th April in the
dispersal of a mob at Amritsar by Gurkha troops under the command
of General Dyer. They were ordered to open fire and caused heavy
civilian casualties. It had not been appreciated that the rioters
had no way of dispersing from the square in which they had assembled.
Then in May an Afghan army invaded the North West Frontier Province
and frontier tribes rose in its support, but hostilities did not
last long, a negotiated peace agreement being reached in July.
In April 1/4th Queen’s manned armoured trains in the Punjab
and provided other support for the civil authorities at Jullundur.
Subsequently the battalion was employed in maintaining law and
order in Peshawar where subversive leaflets were being circulated
calling upon the Faithful to rise against the Infidels. 1/6th
Surreys was similarly engaged at Agra. Eventually both battalions
were able to leave India in October by which time a Regular battalion,
2nd Queen’s, had arrived from England and was stationed
at Bareilly.
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2nd
Bn The Queen’s Royal Regiment Officer’s at
Haidari Kach, North West Frontier 1920.
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There
was no easing of the political situation. Nationalist confidence
that India would be given home rule was founded on a British Government
policy statement in 1917 that there would be gradual development
of self-governing institutions. It was shattered in 1919 by the
Rowlatt Acts, by the widespread British support for General Dyer
who claimed that had he not acted as he did at Amritsar, the Punjab
would have been swept by ungovernable violence; and subsequently
by delay in introducing the new constitution and disappointment
at the terms of it. In 1921 Ghandi initiated his non co-operation
campaign and in 1930 his more positive civil disobedience campaign
when Dominion status was offered and rejected by the new young
leaders of Congress Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Bose. In doing
so he reasserted his dominance over Indian opinion and contained
Congress ambitions, but the campaigns did not sustain interest,
apathy returned and Muslims became convinced that the Hindu flavour
of the movement was not for them. The Indian Army kept out of
politics and was effective in support of the police in the maintenance
of law and order.
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2nd Queen’s had been permitted to remain in England for
the Victory Parade on 18th July 1919 and embarked for India on
7th August. At Bareilly on 6th November they were inspected by
the Commander-in-Chief, General Sir Charles Munro, an old Queen’s
officer, and Colonel of the Regiment. On Christmas Day the battalion
was ordered to mobilize for operations in Waziristan where it
was intended to mount punitive operations against the Tochi Wazir
and Mahsud tribes. However after the first phase, which did not
involve the Queen’s, the tribes accepted the British terms.
The battalion did not leave Bareilly until the following year
when it moved by rail to Tank for operations against the Wana
Wazirs who had taken to attacking frontier posts. It was then
involved in frontier operations in Waziristan throughout 1921
only arriving back at its new station in India at Lucknow on Christmas
Eve.
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Lt
Col G R P Roupell VC at Fyzabad near Lahore, now called
Faisalabad Commanding Officer 1st Bn The East Surrey Regiment
1935 - 1939.
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The
remainder of 2nd Queen’s tour of India was comparatively
uneventful. On 14th February 1922 the battalion lined the streets
in Delhi for the visit of HRH The Prince of Wales, and again at
Lucknow in 1923 for a visit of the Viceroy. In December 1923 it
moved to Allahabad. In 1924 Indian officers arrived on attachment.
They had received the King’s commission after passing out
from Sandhurst. After the war ten places a year were reserved
at Sandhurst for Indians. They were attached to British regiments
for a year before joining the Indian Army. Previously King’s
commissions and the mandatory attachment had been restricted to
British officers before they joined their Indian regiments. In
December 1926 the battalion embarked at Bombay for the Sudan after
a sixty hour rail journey across India.
1st
Surreys arrived at Rawalpindi from Hong Kong in November 1926.
In 1927 they took part in a review by the Viceroy. In 1931 they
moved to Lahore where they provided a guard of honour during a
visit by the Viceroy. In 1933 they won the All India Boxing Championships.
In 1934 they moved to Fyzabad which they found to be a considerably
more congenial station after the ever-present tensions of Lahore.
In October 1937 the battalion departed for Khartoum.
1st Queen’s arrived at Quetta from Tientsin in 1935 having
left England in 1927 and served successively in Hong Kong, Malta
and China. Quetta was a large garrison, 6,000 feet up in the hills
and bitterly cold in winter. The Battalion moved to Allahabad
in 1937 and in March 1938 one company was detached to Benares
where there was Hindu-Moslem rioting. During the summer of 1939
life went on much as usual with the normal sequence of hot weather
routine, hill stations and leave until the beginning of September,
still very hot in Allahabad, when the calm was broken with the
declaration of war on Germany.
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Corps
of Drums, 1st Bn The East Surrey Regiment, Victoria Barracks,
Rawalpindi India, 1929.
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The
Band, 1st Bn The East Surrey Regiment, Victoria Barracks
Rawalpindi India, 1929.
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Corps
of Drums, 1st Bn The East Surrey Regiment, Victoria Barracks,
Rawalpindi India, 1929.
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No.
4 Platoon 2nd Bn The Queen's Royal Regiment.
NWF India, 1920.
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