page_title: Bengal Army
section_title: End of the separate Bengal Army
hierarchical_section_title: Bengal Army / History / End of the separate Bengal Army
caption_attribution_description: English: A Map of the Bengal Presidency at its fullest extent in 1858
context_page_description: The Bengal Army was the army of the Bengal Presidency, one of the three presidencies of British India within the British Empire.
  The Presidency armies, like the presidencies themselves, belonged to the East India Company until the Government of India Act 1858 transferred all three presidencies to the direct authority of the British Crown.
  In 1895 all three presidency armies were merged into the Indian Army.
context_section_description: In 1895 the three separate Presidency Armies began a process of unification which was not to be concluded until the Kitchener reforms of eight years later.
  As an initial step the Army of India was divided into four commands, each commanded by a lieutenant-general. These comprised Bengal, Bombay (including Aden), Madras (including Burma) and Punjab (including the North West Frontier). In 1903 the separately numbered regiments of the Bombay, Madras and Bengal Armies were unified in a single organisational sequence and the presidency affiliations disappeared.
  The Bengal infantry units in existence at the end of the Presidency era continued as the senior regiments (1st Brahmans to 48th Pioneers of the newly unified Indian Army.
caption: The Bengal Presidency at its greatest extent in 1858
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