Two mounted officers and a dismounted sowar, 4th Bengal Irregular Cavalry, c.1850 (w/c)

Two mounted officers and a dismounted sowar, 4th Bengal Irregular Cavalry, 1850 (c). Watercolour by Ensign Bethune Donald Grant, 35th Bengal Light Infantry, 1850 (c). The 4th Bengal Irregular Cavalry were raised by Captain (later Colonel) James Skinner in 1814 (as the 2nd Regiment of Skinner’s Horse). Like their counterparts in the 1st Irregular Cavalry (Skinner’s Horse) members of the 4th Cavalry wore the distinctive yellow kurtas (long coats) that prompted the nickname ‘the yellow boys’. The son of a Scottish father and a Rajput mother, Skinner is believed to have chosen this colour after an ancient Rajput custom. The tradition held that warriors riding into battle would vow to win or die in the attempt. They would then anoint their faces with saffron and put on ‘Clothes of the Dead’, yellow robes tied over their armour with yellow sashes. The two regiments raised by Skinner were the only regiments in the British and Indian Armies to wear a yellow kurta.