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Sir Harry Burnett Lumsden

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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SIR HARRY BURNETT LUMSDEN (1821-1896), Anglo Indian soldier, son of Colonel Thomas Lumsden, C.B., was born on the 12th of November 1821. He joined the 59th Bengal Native Infantry in 18 3 8, was present at the forcing of the Khyber Pass in 1842, and went through the first and second Sikh wars, being wounded at Sobraon. Having become 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 and foot, 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 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 lieutenant-general in 1875, and died on the 12th of August 1896.

See Sir Peter Lumsden and George Elsmie, Lumsden of the Guides (1899).

I The "cock-padle" was formerly esteemed also in Scotland, and figures in the Antiquary, chap. xi.