42nd Deoli Regiment

42nd Deoli Regiment
Active	1857-1922
Country	Indian Empire
Branch	Army
Type	Infantry
Part of	Bengal Army (to 1895) Bengal Command
Colors	Dark green coats and tunics faced red. Scarlet trousers.

The 42nd Deoli Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. The regiment traced their origins to 1857, when the Meena Battalion was raised during the Indian Mutiny. This battalion was the nucleus for the infantry of the Deoli Irregular Force which in May 1861, numbered eight companies. A cavalry detachment was added to the regiment by 1865 and continued to form part of it until at least 1886^[1]. After this date the 42nd became an exclusively infantry regiment.

The regiment later served in the Second Afghan War and World War I in the 5th (Mhow) Division. During the war a second battalion was raised in 1917. ^[2]After World War I the Indian government reformed the army, moving from single battalion regiments to multi battalion regiments and disbanding nine regiments. The 42nd Deoli Regiment was one of the regiments surplus to the new structure and it was disbanded on 10 December 1921 .^[3]

References

1. ^ W.Y. Carman, page 121, "Indian Army Uniforms - Infantry", Morgan-Grampian: London 1969
2. ^ "42nd Deoli Regiment", britishempire.co.uk
3. ^ Sumner p.15

Further reading

• Barthorp, Michael; Burn, Jeffrey (1979). Indian infantry regiments 1860-1914. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 0-85045-307-0. 
• Sumner, Ian (2001). The Indian Army 1914-1947. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1-84176-196-6.