125th Napier ' s Rifles The 125th Napier ' s Rifles was an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army . Its earlier names include : 1st Extra Battalion Bombay Native Infantry , The 25th Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry ( 1826 – 1889 ) and The 25th Bombay Rifles . Amalgamated with five other regiments in 1922 , it is now the 5th Battalion , the Rajputana Rifles . History . Origins . The regiment traced its origins to the 1st Extra Battalion of Bombay Native Infantry , raised in 1820 out of the Poona Auxiliary Force as part of the Honourable East India Company ' s Bombay Army . In 1826 , this battalion was elevated into a separate regiment called ' The 25th Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry ' . After serving in Afghanistan and in the North - West Frontier Province , the regiment joined the Sindh Expedition , coming under the command of General Sir Charles James Napier , who conquered Sindh in 1843 and sent back to the Governor General the one - word message " " Peccavi " " – Latin for " " I have sinned " " . At the Battle of Meeanee , a bond was cemented between Napier and the regiment , which sixty years later was given his name . Napier later wrote : " The 25th played a distinguished part in the engagement . Had the 22nd ( The Queen ' s Regiment ) and the 25th given way , all would have been lost . " During the Indian Mutiny , the regiment was in Chanderi and at Gwalior . There , on 20 June 1858 , two of its officers , Lieutenants Rose and W . F . F . Waller , organized a surprise attack by night on the Gwalior Fort , their party succeeding in breaking open a number of gates and , after hand - to - hand fighting , taking the fort . Rose was killed , but for his part in the action Waller was awarded the Victoria Cross . In a despatch dated 5 September 1858 , the regiment ' s commanding officer Lt Col . G . H . Robertson reported from a camp near Beejapoor that he had led a column of the 25th with men of other units out of Powree on 27 August in pursuit of Maun Singh , on the 29th engaged a party of Singh ' s infantry , and early on 5 September arrived near Beejapoor where he caught up with Singh , attacked him at 5 . 15 and had routed him by 7 a . m . , destroying " at least 450 mutineers " . Robertson reported only four of his men killed , and twenty men and fifteen horses wounded . He recommended Havildars Ram Lal ( 10th Bengal Light Infantry ) and Dowlut Sing of the 25th " to the consideration of the Brigadier - General commanding " as they had " acted as spies and risked their lives in procuring information in a country where Maun Sing ' s influence is paramount " . On the advice of Brigadier - General Sir Robert Napier , commanding the Gwalior Division , the Commander in Chief recommended that the two Havildars should receive the Order of Merit , 3rd class , " for their exertions in procuring intelligence of the movements of the enemy " . Captain W . Rice of the 25th Bombay Native Infantry , commanding the Goonah Column , wrote from camp at Arone to Sir Robert Napier on 23 December 1858 to report the success of his men , after a moonlight march through dense jungle , in breaking up the camp near Sypoor of rebels led by Feroz Shah , capturing " 100 horses , several camels , and many arms " , causing the enemy to " flee with the utmost despatch , and seek shelter among the dense foliage , on all sides around their position " . Napier wrote to the Chief of the Staff on Christmas Day of this action " Although they did not lose many men killed , the capture of their horses and property must tend greatly to cripple and break up the party . I hear that two of the elephants were left in the Arone jungles , and may be recovered ; there are , therefore , only two remaining with the enemy . In 1861 the unit was constituted as a Light Infantry regiment , and in 1889 it was renamed ' The 25th Regiment ( 3rd Battalion Rifle Regiment ) of Bombay Infantry ' , then in 1901 ' The 25th Bombay Rifles ' . After the Mutiny , the regiment went on to serve in Hyderabad , Poona , Aurangabad , Mhow , Indore and Dhar , remaining part of the army of the Bombay Presidency until a reorganization of the Indian Army by Lord Kitchener in 1903 ( the Kitchener Reforms ) gave it the new name ; ' 125th Napier ' s Rifles ' . First World War . During the First World War , the regiment fought in both the European and Middle Eastern theatres of the war , from France to Mesopotamia , and participated as part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in General Allenby ' s march to take Jerusalem , getting the better of German and Ottoman opponents . At the outbreak of the war , the regiment was an unbrigaded unit of the 5th ( Mhow ) Division of the Indian Army . However , in 1914 it joined the Army ' s 3rd ( Lahore ) Division as part of its 9th ( Sirhind ) Indian Infantry Brigade , landing at Marseilles on 26 September 1914 and taking part in Winter Operations ( 1914 – 1915 ) , the Battle of Neuve Chapelle ( 10 – 13 March 1915 ) , the Battle of Aubers , the Battle of Festubert ( 15 – 25 May 1915 ) , and the Battle of Loos subsidiary attack at the Moulin - du - Piètre on 25 September 1915 . The 125th left the 3rd Division in 1915 to join the 7th ( Meerut ) Division . As part of the 7th Division ' s 19th ( Dehra Dun ) Indian Infantry Brigade , the regiment sailed from Marseilles to go to Mesopotamia , landing at Basra on 31 December 1915 and taking part in the attempt to relieve the besieged garrison of Kut al Amara . It proceeded under Allenby to Palestine , and arrived at Suez on 13 January 1918 . The unit suffered some problems and criticism during the First World War . A Rajput officer of the Indian Army , Amar Singh , who kept a diary in English from 1905 to 1921 , paid particular attention to the regiment ' s wartime role . This diary was published in 2005 as " Between Two Worlds : A Rajput Officer in the Indian Army , 1905 – 21 " . Later . In a further reorganization of the Indian Army in 1921 – 1922 , the regiment was amalgamated with the 104th Wellesley ' s Rifles , 120th Rajputana Infantry , 122nd Rajputana Infantry and 123rd Outram ' s Rifles to become one of the six battalions of the new 6th Rajputana Rifles . The 125th was renamed ' The 5th Battalion ( Napier ' s ) ' . In 1945 , the regiments of the British Indian Army lost the numerals in their titles , and the Rajputanas arrived at their present name of Rajputana Rifles . In 1947 , when the Empire of India gained independence from the British Empire and was partitioned into the Union of India and the Dominion of Pakistan , the regiment was allocated to India and is now the most senior rifle regiment of the Indian Army .