[1] All the battalions of the regiment played an important role in the early military campaigns of the East India Company and were actively engaged in the wars against the French, Mysore and the Marathas.

Their first major engagement was the decisive Battle of Wandiwash in 1760, which ended French colonial ambitions in India.

[1] The regiment also made overseas forays, when the 2nd and 10th Battalions took part in the expeditions to Bourbon Island and Mauritius in the Indian Ocean in 1810, and the 3rd and 5th served in the First Anglo-Burmese War of 1824–26.

Their performance was much appreciated and as a reward, they were the only two battalions of the Indian Army authorized to bear a golden dragon wearing the imperial crown upon their regimental colours along with the battle honour of "China".

[1] After the conquest of Sindh and the Punjab in the 1840s, British focus shifted towards the northwest and the Madras Army was largely reduced to garrison duties.

Under the Kitchener Reforms of 1903, these battalions were redesignated as the 62nd, 66th, 76th, 82nd and 84th Punjabis; thus severing almost a hundred and fifty years of association with Madras.

Captain Claude Auchinleck, later Field Marshal and the last Commander-in-Chief of the British Indian Army, served with the 62nd Punjabis in Egypt and Mesopotamia.

In 1921–22 a major reorganization was undertaken in the British Indian Army leading to the formation of large infantry groups of four to six battalions in 1922.

In the inter-war period, the 1st Punjab Regiment saw extensive service on the North West Frontier of India.

These included a posthumous Victoria Cross to Subedar Ram Sarup Singh for gallantry in action on Kennedy Peak in Burma in 1944, and a Distinguished Service Order to Lieutenant Colonel Sarbjit Singh Kalha for his actions on the Ngakyedauk Pass in Burma in 1944.

Sikhs and Rajputs were transferred to the Indian Army and the regiment's new class composition was fixed as Punjabis and Pathans.

The line up of the new regiment was:[4]Sholinghur, Carnatic, Mysore, Seringapatam, Assaye, Leswarree, Bourbon, Nagpore, Ava, Bhurtpore, China, Burma 1885–87, Suez Canal, Egypt 1915, Shaiba, Kut al Amara 1915, Ctesiphon, Defence of Kut al Amara, Tigris 1916, Kut al Amara 1917, Baghdad, Mesopotamia 1915–18, Aden, NW Frontier India 1915, Afghanistan 1919, Agordat, Keren, Abyssinia 1940–41, Damascus, Syria 1941, Sidi Barrani, Omars, Benghazi, Gazala, Defence of Alamein Line, El Alamein, North Africa 1940–43, Arezzo, Advance to Florence, Gothic Line, The Senio, Italy 1943–45, Pyuntaza-Shwegyin, Yenengyaung 1942, Monywa 1942, Donbaik, Htizwe, North Arakan, Buthidaung, Razabil, Mayu Tunnels, Maungdaw, Ngakyedauk Pass, Imphal, Tamu Road, Litan, Kanglatongbi, Kohima, Defence of Kohima, Relief of Kohima, Jail Hill, Ukhrul, Kennedy Peak, Kalewa, Meiktila, Defence of Meiktila, Taungtha, The Irrawaddy, Rangoon Road, Pyawbwe, Shwemyo Bluff, Pyinmana, Toungoo, Pegu 1945, Sittang 1945, Ramree, Burma 1942–45, Kashmir 1948.