Can anybody please help me with information about the movement of the 26th Hussars from being raised at Meerut in February 1941 to its disbandment at Secunderbad in September 1943 ? The reason being that my wife was born in Ahmednagar on the 6th December 1942 and we are visiting India in two weeks time to try and retrace her fathers army career and her own early childhood. My own research, taken from various memoirs, seems to show them moving from Meerut to Sialkot in the Punjab, then to Nira Camp near Pune (Poona) and then on to Secunderbad. My wifes parents married in Birmingham in May 1938 and it seems that they returned to India together soon after. Would it have been normal for a soldier with the rank of Sergeant to be able to take his wife back to India with him ? Her mother recounted stories of having three servants and a nurse maid which surprises me for the rank of Staff Sergeant. Can anybody tell me exactly what position or status Leonard Holt would have had within the Unit ? Leonard George Holt served in India for 12 years, firstly with the DCLI who he joined in Birmingham in 1930 and he held the rank of Sergeant when he transferred to the 26th Hussars on the 1st February 1941. When the 26th were disbanded the family returned to England in September 1943 and Leonard Holt left the army in 1946. We leave on the 25th February and will be visiting Ahmednagar, Pune, Delhi and Phagwara in the Punjab so any titbit of information about the 26th Hussars would be sincerely appreciated. We will be searching for a needle in a haystack after 70 years but I would like to find the house where my wife was born. Does anybody know if archived photographs of Nira Camp can be found anywhere ? So many questions ! Thank you Brian
Hello and welcome-There's two war diaries at the National Archives for the unit: WO 172/695 26 Hussars 1941 Feb.- 1942 Dec. WO 172/2256 26 Hussars 1943 Jan.- Nov. Cheers Andy
So often one question will lead to others - The Army List of July 1944 shows one Lieutenant RCJ Cornes of the 26th Hussars.(Employed) without pay and allowances (maybe an old hand his commission date is given as 25/7/33) There are many possible reasons and the pay is not what it appears it is without pay of the rank held. - perhaps the last to serve as a member of the 26th Hussars in 1944. Search time! Connolly Extract from above: (Connolly) Meantime, the 26th Hussars then at Alair Camp, Secunderbad had been ordered to mobilize for war.37mm and 75mm ammunition arrived and was loaded into the tanks with post haste, all ranks issued with green battledress, morale was high, the Hussars would fight. Then the bombshell dropped, the Hussars were to be disbanded and used to reinforce the Carabiniers and also the rest to Special Forces (later to be known as Chindits) It would be impossible to describe the feeling of the Officers and Men but the decision had been made and as soldiers we must obey. The 26th Hussars were transferred to the Carabiniers virtually en block and on arriving at Trivllor, Madras found that their tanks that they had laboriously loaded with ammunition and then unloaded, awaiting once again to be loaded to capacity and to be transported to Imphal
Thank you very much Drew5233 and Wills for your kind replies. Lots of individual small clues are now coming to light, including Bill on a different forum, now in his 90th year, who served with the 26th Hussars and has been searching for old comrades for some time. I've sent him a PM and anxiously await an acknowledgment as he hasn't posted for 8 weeks. I've also revisited Leonard Holt's war record and discovered that the family left India on the 16th July 1943 and after arriving in England on the 9th September 1943 he immediately joined (under temporary order A.C.I. 1706/42) the R.A.C. Corps of the 51st Training Regiment, 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry the following day with the rank of Squadron Quarter Master Sergeant (SQMS). On 13th June 1944 he embarked for the North West Europe campaign and on 17th June 1944 he attached to the 262 Forward Delivery Squadron. He was injured in action on 14th June 1945 and evacuated on 22nd June 1945 when he was admitted to Nottingham General Hospital. After various periods of convalescence and leave he was medically discharged on 16th April 1946. I suppose that I ought to now repost this appeal on a more appropriate forum with knowledge of the Northamptonshire Yeomanry 1943-46 ? Once again thanks to all. Brian
A.C.I. 1706/42 - Army Council Instruction - one of the orders allowing postings and wartime promotions. ACIs cover many things from legal and lawful orders given by superior ranks, to welfare and much more the administrative executive. The Army Council now known as the Army Board.
