The Corps of Guides was raised at Peshawar on 14 December 1846 by Lieutenant Harry Burnett Lumsden on the orders of Sir Henry Lawrence, the British Resident at Lahore, capital of the enfeebled Sikh Empire.

Initially composed of a troop of cavalry and two companies of infantry mounted on camels, the Guides were organized as a highly mobile force.

Although the corps recruited men from all over the country and even beyond the Frontier of India, Pathans, Punjabi Muslims, Sikhs and Dogras later formed the bulk of their manpower.

Believing that fighting troops were for service and not for show, Lumsden introduced loose and comfortable dust-coloured uniforms for the first time, which would soon become famous as "khaki"[3] and within decades would be adopted by most of the armies of the world.

In 1956, when Pakistan became a republic, all titles pertaining to British royalty were dropped, and the regiment was redesignated as Guides Cavalry (Frontier Force).

Early in 1848, Lumsden and his Guides were summoned to Lahore to gather evidence of the planned Sikh insurrection - a mission that they successfully carried out.

The Guides served at the Siege of Multan and then participated in the Battle of Gujrat on 21 February 1849, where the Sikh Army was decisively defeated.

[1] In March 1857, when the war of independence broke out, Lumsden was on a mission at Kandahar and Captain Henry Daly led the Guides to join the Delhi Field Force then besieging the ancient capital city.

They left Hoti Mardan on 13 May and arrived at Delhi on 9 June after marching 580 miles in twenty-six days and fourteen hours in the searing Indian summer!

[2][7] During the Second Afghan War of 1878–80, the Guides joined the Peshawar Field Force under General Sir Sam Browne and took part in the capture of Ali Masjid, the advance to Jalalabad and the cavalry action at Fatehabad, where Lieutenant Walter Hamilton won the Victoria Cross for gallantry.

The mission, led by Sir Louis Cavagnari, arrived in Kabul on 24 July 1879, escorted by a detachment of 76 Guides under Lieutenant Hamilton, VC.

They participated in the attacks on Takht-i-Shah and Asmai Heights, where Captain Arthur Hammond won the Victoria Cross for conspicuous gallantry.

After the armistice, they remained in Persia as part of Norperforce to counter any threat to British interests from the Russian Bolsheviks and Persian socialists.

[6] On 26 September 1940, the Guides Cavalry was mechanized as a Light Reconnaissance Regiment equipped with wheeled armoured carriers and 15 cwt trucks.

The regiment took part in the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran, when one of its squadrons, supported by an infantry battalion, stormed and captured the city of Khorramshahr on 25 August.

In June 1942, the regiment arrived in North Africa and covered the British Eighth Army's open desert flank as it withdrew towards Egypt after the debacle at Gazala.

The Guides Cavalry was engaged in fierce fighting near Badiana, where it beat back repeated Indian attacks and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy armour.