the indian mutiny: Connaught rangers in the Indian Mutiny

File:88th Regiment of Foot officers 1855.jpg

After the Crimean War, the 88th returned to Britain, but in response to the Indian Rebellion, the 88th were soon deployed to India.

The regiment, with a strength of 990 at this time, plus the depot of about 100, embarked during July 1857 in four detachments. It arrived in Calcuttain November.below mutineer miniatures

By 25 November 1857, 6 companies had reached the front, 4 at Cawnpore and 2 near

By the end of 1858 the total loss of the 88th in the field during the operations, according to the returns of each engagement,

amounted to one officer and 16 other ranks killed, and 6 officers and 138 other ranks wounded.below a connaught ranger from us at fixed bayonet

This soldier wears the khaki uniform of European soldiers in India at the time of the Mutiny. A Kilmarnock ‘pork-pie’ cap under the white cotton ‘Havelock’ cover to protect the neck from sunburn.

Khaki is a Persian word which means ‘ash’ or ‘dust’, and the colour is often referred to as ‘drab’.

The Connaught Rangers served in India until 1870.

Purchased by the Museum of London the Eastward Ho! painting August 1857, by Henry Nelson O'Neil shows the vivid drama of soldiers boarding a ship at Gravesend. They are leaving to fight in the Indian 'Mutiny' -This was not the the first Indian war of Independence in 1857 as the Museum of London states in its P.C spill but merely a mutiny.. A companion painting Home Again, 1858 shows the soldiers' return a year later.

The Indian Mutiny was seen as a shocking challenge to British supremacy in India. It generated emotive and patriotic coverage in the press and in works of art. O'Neil's paintings focus on the impact of war at home and captured the public mood. They came to symbolise the effect of the many overseas wars, fought in the name of the Empire, on ordinary British people.