14th Murray's Jat Lancers

The 14th Murray's Jat Lancers, also sometimes known as the Murray's Jat Horse, was a cavalry regiment of the British Indian Army. In 1921 it was renamed as 20th Lancers, and after Partition of India in 1947 it eventually became 20 Lancers (India) as an armoured regiment of the Indian Army. Its Muslim soldiers were retained in the regiment which is now known as the 20th Lancers (Pakistan).

History

The regiment was first raised at Aligarh as an irregular cavalry unit in 1857 as the Jat Horse Yeomanry, for the East India Company by Captain John Irvine Murray then serving with the Gwalior Contingent. It was raised from 250 sepoys and 120 sowars (cavalrymen) recruited from the Jats of the rural areas of Hathras, Mathura, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, and Khurja in present Uttar Pradesh, and Palwal and Hodal in present Haryana, who were offered by Thakur Gobind Singh, a Jat chieftain of Khair in Aligarh, to combat the 1857 uprising, and thus became the first regiment to be manned completely with Jat troops in the British Indian Army.

Until 1861, the regiment was paid for by private funds of the British officers and Indian Risaldars. Later the Regimental Centre and Officers' Mess was established at Palwal. The regiment participated in a number of actions in 1857–58, especially at Meerut, the Siege of Delhi and the Siege of Lucknow, but did not qualify for any battle honour. Subedar Pratap Singh was the first Subedar of the HQ Squadron of the regiment in 1857–61.

Murray's Lancers subsequently served in the Bhutan Field Force during the Duar War (1864–65).