ABSTRACT
Among the earliest members were those who had been directly involved in the Indian Mutiny of 1857 or been members of Douglas Forsyth’s Mission to Yakub Beg in Kashgar in 1874. Several served in the Afghan Wars of 1879 and 1919; six marched with Colonel Kelly to the relief of the besieged fort at Chitral in 1895; twenty-four were associated with the campaigns supporting the Arab Revolt in 1916-1918 and many were members of Dunsterville’s and Malleson’s Caspian missions at the close of the First World War. The Indian Civil Service, Political Service and the Army were from the outset the most prolific recruiting grounds, whilst a great many joined after the First World War from the Civil Administration set up in Mesopotamia in the wake of the British Expeditionary Forces’ advance inland from Basra.
