{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}} {{Infobox military unit |unit_name=17th Infantry (The Loyal Regiment) |image= |caption= |dates=1858-1922 |country=Indian Empire |branch=Army |type=Infantry |size= |command_structure=Bengal Army (to 1895)<br />Bengal Command |garrison= |ceremonial_chief=Edward VII (1904) |ceremonial_chief_label=Colonel-in-Chief |colonel_of_the_regiment= |nickname= |motto= |colors=Red; faced white |colors_label=Uniform |march= |mascot= |battles=1878–80 Afghanistan<br />1885 Suakin<br /> Tofrek |notable_commanders= |anniversaries= }} The '''17th Infantry (The Loyal Regiment)''' was an infantry regiment of the Bengal Army, later of the united British Indian Army. It was formed at Phillour in 1858 by Major J. C. Innes from men of the 3rd, 36th and 61st Bengal Native Infantry regiments who remained loyal to the British East India Company<ref>{{cite book|first=Miachael|last=Barthorp|page=[https://archive.org/details/indianinfantryre00bart/page/n19 19]|title=Indian Infantry Regiments 1860-1914|year=1979|url=https://archive.org/details/indianinfantryre00bart|url-access=limited|ISBN=0-85045-307-0}}</ref> during the Indian Mutiny, and designated '''''The Loyal Purbiah Regiment'''''.<ref name=QIALjan19p1086>''Quarterly Indian Army List January'' 1919, p. 1086</ref>
These men were designated as Purbiyas, ''Purbiah'', or ''Poorbeah'' meaning Easterners and were recruited from the region stretching from Agra to Bihar.<ref>{{cite web |title=Button, 17th (The Loyal Purbiah) Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry, 1864-1898 |url=https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=2013-10-20-52-62 |website=National Army Museum |publisher=National Army Museum |access-date=30 December 2023}}</ref>
It was subsequently re-designated as follows:-
*17th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry – 1861 *17th (The Loyal Purbiah) Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry – 1864 *17th (The Loyal Purbiah) Regiment of Bengal Infantry –1885 *17th (The Loyal Regiment) of Bengal Infantry – 1898 *17th Musalman Rajput Infantry (The Loyal Regiment) – 1902
Its final designation came in 1903 with the Kitchener reforms of the Indian Army.<ref name=QIALjan19p1086/>
The regiment took part in the Second Anglo-Afghan War, the Battle of Tofrek the siege of Suakin in the Sudan Campaign and World War I. During World War I they were part of the 22nd (Lucknow) Brigade, first attached to the 8th Lucknow Division in India on internal security duties the brigade was then transferred to Egypt as part of the 11th Indian Division.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britishempire.co.uk/forces/armyunits/indianinfantry/17thloyal.htm |title=Armed Forces: Units: Indian Infantry: 17th The Loyal Regiment |publisher=British Empire |date= |accessdate=2014-02-13}}</ref> After World War I the infantry of the Indian Army was restructured by the mass amalgamation of single battalion units into a smaller number of multi-battalion regiments. The 17th Infantry was one of nine regiments disbanded in 1922, as a result of this reform.<ref>Sumner p .15</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}} *{{cite book|last=Barthorp|first=Michael|last2=Burn|first2=Jeffrey|year=1979|title=Indian infantry regiments 1860-1914|publisher=Osprey Publishing|isbn=0-85045-307-0}} *''Quarterly Indian Army List January 1919'', Army Headquarters, India. Calcutta, 1919. *{{cite book|last=Sumner|first=Ian|title=The Indian Army 1914-1947|year=2001|publisher=Osprey Publishing|isbn=1-84176-196-6}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Loyal Purbiah Regiment}} Category:British Indian Army infantry regiments Category:Honourable East India Company regiments Category:Military units and formations established in 1858 Category:1858 establishments in India Category:Military units and formations disestablished in 1922
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