Calcutta Light Horse
Calcutta Light Horse | |
---|---|
Active | 1872–1947 |
Country | British India |
Allegiance | United Kingdom |
Branch | Second World War |
The Calcutta Light Horse was raised in 1872 and formed part of the Cavalry Reserve in the British Indian Army. The regiment was disbanded following India's independence in 1947.[1]
Operation Creek
On
The Light Horse embarked on the barge Phoebe at
As the end credits of the 1980 film The Sea Wolves state, "during the first 11 days of March 1943, U-boats sank 12 Allied ships in the Indian Ocean. After the Light Horse raid on Goa, only one ship was lost in the remainder of the month."[5]
Members
- Honorary Colonel Louis Mountbatten(1947)
- Colonel Archie Pugh 1890-1922 (1912-1922 as Colonel)
- Colonel Bill Grice
- Colonel John Pugh
- Corporal John Raymond
- Sir Owain Jenkins
- Ralph Wesley Dennis
Media
In 1978 James Leasor wrote an account of the Ehrenfels mission in the book Boarding Party: The Last Charge of the Calcutta Light Horse. The film The Sea Wolves based on the book was made in 1980, with actors David Niven, Gregory Peck, Trevor Howard, Roger Moore and Patrick Macnee.[6]
Legacy
- The Light Horse Bar at the Saturday Club in Kolkata is named after the regiment. The club was founded in 1878 and is located on Wood Street. The bar houses a collection of regimental memorabilia.[7]
- The Calcutta Light Horse Bar at the Oriental Club in London is named after the regiment.
- British Eventing presents a Calcutta Light Horse Trophy to the owner of the British horse gaining the highest number of points during a horse racing season.
Notes
- ^ "Button, Calcutta Light Horse, 1887-1901". Online Collection | National Army Museum, London. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
- ISBN 978-0-7551-0135-1.
This book tells how fourteen of them, with four colleagues from the Calcutta Scottish, another Auxiliary Force unit, volunteered for a hazardous task which, for reasons the author makes plain, no-one else was able to undertake. This happened shortly before my arrival in India in 1943, as Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia, and immediately saw how valuable were the results of this secret operation.
- ^ Zimmerman, Dwight Jon (12 August 2013). "Operation Creek: SOE Enlists an "Over the Hill Gang" for a Mission". Defense Media Network. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
- ^ Zimmerman, Dwight Jon (12 August 2013). "Operation Creek: Going to War on a River Barge". Defense Media Network. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
- ^ "The Sea Wolves (1980) - Trivia". IMDb. 2014. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
- IMDb
- ^ "History". The Saturday Club. 2014. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
References
- Jackson, Ashley (2006). The British Empire and the Second World War. London: Hambledon Continuum. p. 260. ISBN 1-85285-417-0.
- Leasor, James (1978). Boarding Party, the Last Charge of the Calcutta Light Horse. London: Heinemann. OCLC 4191743. Archived from the original on 7 August 2020. Retrieved 14 April 2013. Republished in paperback as The Sea Wolves (1980) with a special foreword by Lord Mountbatten of Burma.