Harry Burnett Lumsden

Lumsden was born aboard the East India Company’s ship Rose in the Bay of Bengal, the son of a British Army Colonel Thomas Lumsden, C.B. He was shipped to Scotland to study at age 6, and returned to India at age 16.

Lumsden joined the 59th Bengal Native Infantry in 1838, was present at the forcing of the Khyber Pass in 1842. He fought in the first and second Sikh Wars[?], being wounded at Sobraon[?]. He became assistant to Sir Henry Lawrence[?] at Lahore in 1846, he was appointed in 1847 to raise the Corps of Guides. The object of this corps, composed of horse cavelry and foot soldiers, was to provide trustworthy men to act as guides to troops in the field, and also to collect intelligence beyond as well as within the North-West frontier of India. The regiment was located at Mardan[?] on the Peshawar border, and has become one of the most famous in. the Indian army. For the equipment of this corps, Lumsden originated the khaki uniform in 1848. In 1857 he was sent on a mission to Kandahar with his younger brother, Sir Peter Lumsden, in connexion with the subsidy paid by the Indian government to the amir, and was in Afghanistan throughout the Mutiny. He took part in the Waziri Expedition[?] of 1860, was in command of the Hyderabad Contingent from 1862, and left India in 1869. He became a lieutenant-general in 1875; that same year he retired and moved to Scotland where he spent the rest of his days.