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Originally Posted by Shakethetrees
Back to a reply I posted a week or so back under the Afghan Pistols thread...
Anyone with sabers or swords attributed to the Poonah Irregular Horse?
I posted a pistol from c. 1850 marked to this unit and would love to see the blades they carried, specifically during the Persia campaign mid 1850's.
Thanks in advance!
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I spent some time with a few more references.
Staying with the pistol you originally posted on the 'Afghan pistol' thread, the example you have with the lionhead butt cap has an example illustrated in "British Military Pistols 1603-1888", 1978, Robert Brooker, plate 124.
On the lock, the same POONAH IRREGULAR HORSE in same location, in lieu of the EIC rampant lion which is on earlier EIC pistols.
Apparantly Garden & Son, Piccadilly, were one of the largest outfitters to these 'irregular cavalry units' through the 1850s.
In the Brooker reference, there are pistols to the IRREGULAR 2ND CAVALRY and SCINDE IRREGULAR HORSE, both stamped in this same manner and most notably with the same lionhead butt cap.
As the designation POONAH IRREGULAR HORSE was used from 1847 until 1861, it is likely the pistol is of this period, and of course may well have been used during the Persian campaign of 1856-7, in which this unit participated in the charge at Kooshab. As you noted, your pistol was made by Harrington & Scott of Birmingham (who became partners in 1849).
The illustration of a Ratore Rajput of 34th Prince Albert Victors Own POONA HORSE was a watercolor by Maj. A C Lovett, CBE, in 1910 and appears in "The Armies of India" by Lt. Gen. Sir George MacMunn, 1911 (repr1984).
These illustrations are held by the National Army Museum.
The book "The Indian Army" by Boris Mollo, 1981, has an illustration of Col. Charles Swanston, Poona Irregular Horse c.1818 (p.42) by an unknown artist. The figure is standing next to a horse, and has a pistol in sash and apparently a mameluke type officers sabre There is no other detail in text as far as I could find.
As far as swords used by this regiment in the Persian campaigns, since the Paget pattern swords were not around until 1860s, it might be presumed that East India Company swords or outfitted officers type swords might have been in use. The 'Company' had ordered as many as 10,000 of the 1796 type light cavalry sabres in the 1790s. According to David Harding, no EIC markings were ever on swords (I do know earlier they were on bayonets).
Though after the 1857 mutiny, the EIC was effectively ceased, it seems possible some regular British military patterns might have been in use, but I have not yet found more on that.
At this point it is far more likely to find examples or data on the weapons for officers of this unit than the troopers. It is interesting that the Garden & Co. lionhead butt caps seem peculiar to that firm, and supplying these 'irregular' units. The term is with regard to the fact they these units were usually 'sillidar' (troopers supply own horses) and usually had just a few officers controlling the unit. The squadrons (risallahs) were as many as ten with up about 500 men in each.