The 104th Wellesley's Rifles were an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army

British Indian Army

The British Indian Army, officially simply the Indian Army, was the principal army of the British Raj in India before the partition of India in 1947...

. They could trace their origins to 1775, when they were raised as the 5th Battalion, Bombay Sepoys.

The regiments first action was during the Mysore Campaign

Mysore (1789-91)

The battle honour of Mysore commemorates the Third Anglo-Mysore War of 1789-92. Tipu Sultan attacked Travancore on 29 December 1789 and this made the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Marathas apprehensive who entered into a "Triple Alliance" with the English. The Third Anglo-Mysore War went on for about...

 in the Third Anglo-Mysore War

Third Anglo-Mysore War

The Third Anglo-Mysore War was a war in South India between the Sultanate of Mysore and the British East India Company and its allies, including the Mahratta Empire and the Nizam of Hyderabad...

. This was followed by their participation in the Battle of Seringapatam

Battle of Seringapatam

The Siege of Seringapatam was the final confrontation of the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War between the British East India Company and the Kingdom of Mysore. The British achieved a decisive victory after breaching the walls of the fortress at Seringapatam and storming the citadel. Tippu Sultan, Mysore's...

 in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War

Fourth Anglo-Mysore War

The Fourth Anglo-Mysore War was a war in South India between the Sultanate of Mysore and the British East India Company under the Earl of Mornington....

. They were next called to serve in the Beni Boo Ali campaign in 1821, against the pirates in Eastern Arabia and the Persian Gulf

Persian Gulf

The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...

 region. Returning to India they took part in the Siege of Multan

Siege of Multan

The Siege of Multan was a prolonged contest between the city and state of Multan and the British East India Company. The siege lasted between 19 April 1848, when a rebellion in the city against a ruler imposed by the East India Company precipitated the Second Anglo-Sikh War, and 22 January 1849,...

 during the Second Anglo-Sikh War

Second Anglo-Sikh War

The Second Anglo-Sikh War took place in 1848 and 1849, between the Sikh Empire and the British East India Company. It resulted in the subjugation of the Sikh Empire, and the annexation of the Punjab and what subsequently became the North-West Frontier Province by the East India Company.-Background...

. They were next involved in the Anglo-Persian War

Anglo-Persian War

The Anglo-Persian War lasted between November 1, 1856 and April 4, 1857, and was fought between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Persia . In the war, the British opposed an attempt by Persia to reacquire the city of Herat...

 in 1856, followed the next year by the Indian Rebellion of 1857

Indian Rebellion of 1857

The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of sepoys of the British East India Company's army on 10 May 1857, in the town of Meerut, and soon escalated into other mutinies and civilian rebellions largely in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, with the major hostilities confined to...

 taking part in the Central India Campaign

Central India Campaign (1858)

The Central India Campaign was one of the last series of actions in the Indian rebellion of 1857,...

.

Twenty years were to pass until their next action in the Battle of Kandahar

Battle of Kandahar

The Battle of Kandahar, 1 September 1880, was the last major conflict of the Second Anglo-Afghan War. The battle in southern Afghanistan was fought between the British forces under command of General Roberts and the Afghan forces led by Ayub Khan, inflicting nearly 3,000 casualties in...

 during the Second Afghan War. They were also in East Africa

East Africa

East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...

 during the Sudan Campaign. During World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 they were in the 6th (Poona) Division

6th (Poona) Division

For the World War II formation see 6th Infantry Division The 6th Division was a division of the British Indian Army. It was formed in 1903, following the Kitchener reforms of the Indian Army.-World War I:...

 during the Mesopotamia Campaign.
After a string of early successes particularly during the Battle of Es Sinn

Battle of Es Sinn

The Battle of Es Sinn was a military engagement during the Mesopotamian Campaign of World War I. The battle was fought to determine control of the lower Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now Iraq. It was also viewed, by the British and Indian governments, as a test of the Ottoman forces and...

, the 6th Division was defeated at the Battle of Ctesiphon

Battle of Ctesiphon (1915)

The Battle of Ctesiphon was fought in November 1915 by the British Empire and British India, against the Ottoman Empire, within the Mesopotamian Campaign of World War I....

 in November 1915. Following this engagement, the division withdrew to Kut

Kut

Al-Kūt is a city in eastern Iraq, on the left bank of the Tigris River, about 160 kilometres south east of Baghdad. the estimated population is about 374,000 people...

 and Siege of Kut

Siege of Kut

The siege of Kut Al Amara , was the besieging of 8,000 strong British-Indian garrison in the town of Kut, 100 miles south of Baghdad, by the Ottoman Army. Its known also as 1st Battle of Kut. In 1915, its population was around 6,500...

 began. After a lengthy siege all they surrendered in April 1916.

After World War I the Indian government reformed the army moving from single battalion regiments to multi battalion regiments. In 1922, the 104th Wellesley's Rifles became the 1st Battalion 6th Rajputana Rifles

6th Rajputana Rifles

The 6th Rajputana Rifles were an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. They were formed in 1922, after the Indian government reformed the army. They moved away from single battalion regiments to multi battalion regiments...

. After independence they were one of the regiments allocated to the Indian Army

Indian Army

The Indian Army is the land based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. With about 1,100,000 soldiers in active service and about 1,150,000 reserve troops, the Indian Army is the world's largest standing volunteer army...

.

Predecessor names

• 5th Battalion, Bombay Sepoys - 1775
• 9th Battalion, Bombay Sepoys - 1778
• 2nd Battalion, 2nd Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry - 1796
• 4th Bombay Native Infantry - 1824
• 4th Bombay Infantry (or Rifle Corps) - 1885
• 4th (1st Battalion Rifle Corps) Bombay Infantry - 1889
• 4th Bombay Rifles - 1901
• 104th Wellesley's Rifles - 1903