29th (Worcestershire) Regiment of Foot - India

India

In 1842 the 29th was sent to garrison the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. From 1845 to 1846, the 29th Regiment of Foot fought in the First Anglo-Sikh War in the Punjab area of India at the final battle of the war at Sobraon the 29th and two battalions of Indian Sepoys twice unsuccessfully assaulted the sikh earthworks before finally breaking through on the third assault, 10 days later the British Army occupied Lahore ending the war. The friendship between the Regiment and the 10th Regiment of Foot is an old one. The Regiments refer to each other as "Our Cousins". It is supposed to have arisen in the Napoleonic Wars, if not earlier, when the 29th and 10th Regiments many times fought side by side. The friendship was cemented in the Sikh Wars, when the two Regiments met in the captured trenches at the bloody Battle of Sobraon on 10 February 1846 where the 29th again suffered heavy casualties 186 men were killed or wounded out of a total of 552. From 1848 to 1849, the 29th served in the Second Anglo-Sikh War. The 29th was still in India and Burma until 1859 during which time the Indian Mutiny took place. A large detachment from the regiment helped to keep open the Grand Trunk Road during the mutiny.