The 2nd Battalion was posted to South Africa in October 1899, following the outbreak of the Second Boer War. The battalion suffered heavy losses at the Battle of Magersfontein in December 1899. After the end of the war, about 730 officers and men left Point Natal for British India on the SS "Ionian" in October 1902, where after arrival in Bombay it was stationed in Sialkot in Umballa in Punjab.