129th Duke of Connaught's Own Baluchis

The 129th Duke of Connaught's Own Baluchis was an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army raised in 1846 as the 2nd Bellochee Battalion.

[1] The regiment was raised on 6 May 1846 at Karachi on the orders of General Sir Charles Napier, the British Governor of Sindh.

[4] In 1912, General Sir Garrett O'Moore Creagh, VC, GCB, GCSI, Commander-in-Chief, British Indian Army was appointed Colonel of the 129th DCO Baluchis.

The red trousers were a distinctive feature of all five Baluch infantry regiments then serving in the British Indian Army.

[6]During the First World War, the 129th DCO Baluchis served on the Western Front in France and Belgium, where they became the first Indian regiment to attack the Germans.

At Hollebeke, during the First Battle of Ypres, Sepoy Khudadad Khan became the first Pakistani to win the Victoria Cross; Britain's highest decoration for valour.

[1] Throughout its existence as a separate regiment the 129th Baluchis wore a full dress comprising dark green turban and tunic, the latter with red facings.

British officers wore green tunics of rifle regiment pattern with silver ornamented pouch-belts and red trousers.

Typical Baluchi riflemen ( Estaire - La Bassée Road, France , 4 Aug 1915). Photographer- H. D. Girdwood. (13875264813)
The 29th (Duke of Connaught's Own) Bombay Native Infantry on firing exercise. Coloured lithograph by Richard Simkin, c. 1885.
The 129th Duke of Connaught's Own Baluchis near Hollebeke , Belgium , First Battle of Ypres , October 1914.
Lance Naik Ghulam Haider, 129th Duke of Connaught's Own Baluchis, 1911.