Early history The regiment was raised at
Nowshera on 1 August 1857 by Lieutenant
Charles Henry Brownlow from drafts provided by
4th and
5th Punjab Infantry on the orders of
John Lawrence, the British High Commissioner of the
Punjab. It was one of several battalions raised by Lawrence to suppress the Great
Indian Mutiny of 1857. Brownlow, who became their first
commanding officer, remained associated with the regiment for more than half a century; becoming their
Honorary Colonel in 1904. He was made a
Field Marshal in 1908. The seven companies of the regiment comprised five companies of Punjabi Musalmans and two companies of Jatt Sikhs. The regiment mainly recruited
Awans and
Gakhars from
Talagang,
Pindigheb,
Kallar Kahar and
Khewra. The regiment's first overseas service came during the
Second Opium War against
China. Soon after landing there, it took part in the successful assault on
Taku Forts on 21 August 1860. The regiment then advanced with the rest of the British force, arriving at
Peking (Beijing) in late September, which was captured on 6 October. In 1861, the regiment was brought into the line as the
24th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry, replacing the previous 24th which had mutinied in 1857. It was renumbered as the 20th Regiment later in the year. During the
First World War, the regiment saw active service in
Mesopotamia and
Palestine against the
Ottoman Empire. On 16 October 1914, the 20th Punjabis sailed for the
Persian Gulf from
Bombay as part of the
16th (Poona) Brigade of the
Indian Expeditionary Force 'D'. On 6 November, the regiment landed near the fort of
Fao, and then advanced up the
Shatt-al-Arab. On 11 November, the regiment was actively involved in repulsing a Turkish attack near Sanniyeh. The regiment then took part in the successful attack on the Ottoman force at Saihan on 15 November, and
Zain on 19 November. After the Turks retreated northwards, the regiment took part in the capture of
Basra, which was occupied on 23 November. In April 1915, the regiment fought at the
Battle of Shaiba, where the Turkish attempt to retake Basra was foiled. The 20th Punjabis subsequently took part in the British advance northwards, which led to the capture of
Kut-al-Amara in September 1915. For the next two years, the regiment remained engaged in a number of actions against the Turks including the Battle of Istabulat. After spending a few months in Egypt, it was dispatched to Palestine in March 1918 and took over trenches north of
Jaffa. In May 1918, it returned to India. In 1947, the 14th Punjab Regiment was allocated to Pakistan Army. In 1956, it was merged with the
1st,
15th and
16th Punjab Regiments to form one large
Punjab Regiment, and 2/14th Punjab was redesignated as 6 Punjab. In 1948, the battalion fought in the war with
India in
Kashmir, while during the 1965 Indo-Pakistan War, it served in the
Rann of Kutch, and then took part in
Operation Grand Slam. In 1971, it fought in
East Pakistan. ==Lineage==