With Lt Gen Dhiraj Seth’s elevation, Gardner’s Horse becomes the only unit to have produced three Army Chiefs, a record unmatched in Indian military history
Among the oldest and most highly decorated armoured regiments of the Indian Army, 2nd Lancers has the unique distinction of being the parent unit of three Chiefs of the Army Staff – the highest number for any unit.
The Army Chief designate, Lt Gen Dhiraj Seth, scheduled to take over the reins of the Indian Army on June 30, was commissioned into this regiment in December 1986, though he later commanded 1st Horse.
Earlier, Gen Maharaj Rajendrasinhji Jadeja, the first Chief from the Armoured Corps who held office from January 1952 to May 1955, was posted to the regiment when he joined the Indian Army about a year after his commissioning from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst in 1921, where he had been placed on the Unattached List for the Indian Army and seconded to a British Infantry regiment. At that time post-commission attachment of Indian officers with a British unit for about a year was mandatory. As a Lieutenant Colonel, Gen Jadeja commanded 2nd Lancers.
Gen Bipin Chandra Joshi, Army Chief from July 1993 to November 1994 when he died in harness, was commissioned into 2nd Lancers in December 1954, though he later commanded 64 Cavalry in the western theatre during the 1971 India-Pakistan war.
In the Armoured Corps, as also in some other arms like the Artillery and Engineers, a ‘regiment’ is the equivalent of an Infantry battalion, commanded by an officer of the rank of Colonel. In the Infantry, the term regiment denotes a group of battalions based on a particular caste, religious or regional composition, such as the Punjab Regiment, Jat Regiment, Garhwal Rifles, Gorkha Riles, Maratha Light Infantry and Assam Regiment. Each such regiment has a number of battalions which are placed under different operational formations.
A few Army Chiefs have belonged to the same combat Arm or Infantry regiment, but instances of more than one Chiefs having affiliation to the same unit are rare. Gen KV Krishna Rao and Gen Krishnaswamy Sundarji, both from the Mahar Regiment, served initially with the regiment’s 2nd Battalion but went on to command the 3rd and 1st Battalion, respectively.
The 16th Light Cavalry, India’s oldest armoured regiment that was raised in 1776, is associated with two Chiefs – Gen Jayanto Nath Chaudhuri and Gen Vishwa Nath Sharma. Gen Chaudhuri had initially joined the 7th Light Cavalry and later commanded the 16th, whereas Gen Sharma was commissioned into the 16th and later commander 66 Armoured Regiment.
The Kumaon Regiment is associated with three Chiefs. Gen General Satyawant Mallannah Shrinagesh and General Kodendera Subayya Thimayya had joined the 4th Battalion of the 19th Hyderabad Regiment in the erstwhile British Indian Army, which after Independence was merged into the Kumaon Regiment and is now its 4th Battalion. Gen Tapishwar Narain Raina initially served with different battalions of the 19th Hyderabad Regiment and later commanded 14 Kumaon.
On the other hand, the Sikh Light Infantry, for example, has produced three Army Chiefs – Gen VP Malik, Gen Bikram Singh and Gen MM Naravane, but they are from different battalions of the regiment.
Now having shot into prominence with the announcement of Gen Upendra Dwivedi’s successor, 2nd Lancers, also known as Gardner’s Horse after William Linnæus Gardner, a British officer who had raised it in 1809 at Farukhabad in Uttar Pradesh, was formed by the amalgamation of two of the oldest regiments of the East India Company’s Bengal Army – the 2nd Royal Lancers and the 4th Cavalry.
After initial policing duties in occupied territories around Agra, the regiment first saw active service in 1815 during the Anglo-Nepalese War, and till the outbreak of the First World War, was engaged in campaigns in Punjab, Bengal, Multan and Egypt.
It deployed to France during the First World War, where it was involved in the Battle of the Somme, Battle of Bazentin, Battle of Flers-Courcelette, the Advance to the Hindenburg Line and the Battle of Cambrai. It was on the Western Front that Lance-Daffadar Gobind Singh from the 27th Light Cavalry, attached to the 2nd Lancers, was awarded the Regiment’s only Victoria Cross for gallantry.
In 1918, the Regiment moved to Egypt, conducting several operations in Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Syria and other areas of West Asia, before finally landing back in India in December 1920. World War-II saw the regiment back in Africa, serving in the Western Desert campaign as part of the 3rd Indian Motor Brigade under the 7th Armoured Division against the Axis attacks, and also deputing troops for the Indian Long Range Squadron formed to patrol the borders between the Soviet Union and Persia and Afghanistan.
On returning to India in January 1943, 2nd Lancers was converted to an armoured car regiment. In October, Lt Col Jadeja became the first Indian officer to take command of the Regiment, and also became the first Indian to command an armoured regiment.
Post-Independence, 2nd Lancers took part in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 as part of the 1st Armoured Division. The regiment was then equipped with American M-4 Sherman tanks and fought in the Battle of Phillora and the Battle of Chawinda, for which it was awarded the Battle Honour Punjab.
In August 1966, the Regiment was the first unit in the Army to be equipped with the Vijayanta, the first indigenously built tank that had played a crucial role in the 1971 India-Pakistan War. The Regiment currently operates the Soviet-origin T-72 tanks.
2nd Lancers is the only Indian Army regiment that has an affiliation with British Army’s Royal Tank Regiment (RTR), the world’s oldest armoured establishment that was formed in 1916 during the First World War.
According to the RTR website, the affiliation, a fraternal and ceremonial relationship based on shared history and traditions, was formed in 1973. Besides India, armoured or cavalry regiments from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France and Pakistan are similarly affiliated. The current British monarch, King Charles III, is the Colonel-in-Chief of the RTR.
