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Brief History
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History recalls more than one instance when a victorious British force has scarcely completed negotiations for peace when it has begun to enlist ex-enemy soldiers for local service. Thus it was in 1816 with the Gurkhas and also in 1846 after the fiercely fought Sikh wars. Two regiments were formed - the Regiment of Ferozepore and the Regiment of Ludhiana - albeit not entirely Sikh in composition. The regular Bengal line supplied a number of Oudh Rajputs as the framework and the now ubiquitous Punjabi Mussalman made up a leavening. Those were the days before the class structure of regiments which developed only 50 years later. During the Great Mutiny, the Regiment of Ferozepore fought its way with Havelock into the beleaguered garrison of Lucknow and awaited the second relief led by Sir Colin Campbell. The colour-staff borne in that action, chipped and splintered by rebel fire, was still in use well into the 20th century, although the attached colour had long since been replaced by another, carrying the honour scrolls which offered testimony. At the end of the campaign, the Regiment was granted the right to wear a red pagri, a distinction later extended to the 11th Sikh Regiment (formed in 1922, of which the 14th became the 1st battalion). In the post-Mutiny realignment in 1861, they became the 15th Bengal Native Infantry briefly but,later that year, changed to the 14th.
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