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British Ceremonial Soldiers of the Queen

British Empire The Raj and British India

The Royal Gurkha Rifles

The Kings African Rifles Colonial Africana

British East Africa 'Askari' Colonial Soldiers

Tipu Sultan's Mechanical Tiger

British Ceremonial Trophy Toy Soldiers

New Designs

Indian Lancer.
- British Raj & British India

Indian Lancer

My limited edition soldier depicts an Indian Lancer c.1857

The most famous of the British Indian Cavalry Regiments was undoubtly the 1st Bengal Lancers Otherwise known as Skinners Horse. This regiment was raised by Colonel James Skinner a very well known military personality of British India and Born of mixed parentage (half Rajput and half English), he rose to great heights of fame at the head of his cavalry regiment 'Skinners Horse' ‘the yellow boys’ which till today remains one of the most elite regiments of the Indian army.

The British Raj was a historical period during which most of the Indian subcontinent, was under the colonial rule of the British Empire. In 1600, Queen Elizabeth I of England granted a royal charter to the British East India Company to carry out trade with the East. By the mid-1600s,the British East India Company had established trading posts or "factories" in major Indian cities such as Calcutta, Bombay and Madras.

The British first established a territorial foothold in the Indian subcontinent when Company-funded soldiers commanded by Robert Clive defeated the Bengali Nawab Siraj Ud Daulah at the Battle of Plassey in 1757. At the turn of the 19th century, Governor-General Lord Wellesley began expanding the Company's domain on a large scale, defeating Tippoo Sultan, annexing Mysore in southern India, and removing all French influence from the subcontinent.

In the mid-19th century, Governor-General Lord Dalhousie launched perhaps the Company's most ambitious expansion, defeating the Sikhs in the Anglo-Sikh Wars and annexing the Punjab and subduing Burma in the Second Burmese War. He also justified the takeover of small princely states such as Satara, Sambalpur, Jhansi, and Nagpur.

British Raj Colonial Soldier Collection

Click here for details of the hand carved wooden British Raj Soldiers.

Wooden Soldier Regimental Histories

All of our wooden soldiers are made in strictly limited editions, click here for a regimental history of each soldier.