The 73rd Carnatic Infantry were an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army

British Indian Army

The British Indian Army, officially simply the Indian Army, was the principal army of the British Raj in India before the partition of India in 1947...

. They could trace their origins to 1776, when they were raised as the 13th Carnatic Battalion by drafts of men of the from the 4th

64th Pioneers

The 64th Pioneers was a infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. They could trace their origins to 1758, when they were the 5th Battalion Coast Sepoys...

, 7th

67th Punjabis

The 67th Punjabis were an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. They could trace their origins to 1759, when they were raised as the 8th Battalion Coast Sepoys....

 and the 11th Carnatic Battalions.

The regiments first action was in 1781, during the Battle of Sholinghur

Battle of Sholinghur

The Battle of Sholinghur was fought on 27 September 1781 between forces of the Kingdom of Mysore led by Hyder Ali and British East India Company forces led by General Eyre Coote. The company forces were victorious.-References:*Vibart, H. M ....

 and the Battle of Seringapatam

Battle of Seringapatam

The Siege of Seringapatam was the final confrontation of the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War between the British East India Company and the Kingdom of Mysore. The British achieved a decisive victory after breaching the walls of the fortress at Seringapatam and storming the citadel. Tippu Sultan, Mysore's...

 in the Second Anglo-Mysore War

Second Anglo-Mysore War

The Second Anglo-Mysore War was a conflict in Mughal India between the Sultanate of Mysore and the British East India Company. At the time, Mysore was a key French ally in India, and the Franco-British conflict raging on account of the American Revolutionary War helped spark Anglo-Mysorean...

 in 1781. They had to wait just over 100 years for there next action which was during the Third Anglo-Burmese War

Third Anglo-Burmese War

The Third Anglo-Burmese War was a conflict that took place during 7–29 November 1885, with sporadic resistance and insurgency continuing into 1887. It was the final of three wars fought in the 19th century between the Burmese and the British...

 in 1885.

During World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, they remained in India on training and internal security duties attached to the 9th (Secunderabad) Division

9th (Secunderabad) Division

The 9th Division was a formation of the British Indian Army. It was part of the Southern Army and was formed in 1904 after Lord Kitchener was appointed Commander-in-Chief, India between 1902 and 1909...

.

After World War I the Indian government reformed the army moving from single battalion regiments to multi battalion regiments. In 1922, the 73rd Carnatic Infantry became the 1st Battalion, 3rd Madras Regiment

3rd Madras Regiment

The 3rd Madras Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army formed after the World War I reforms of the Indian Army. The infantry regiments were converted into large regiments with four or five battalions in each regiment plus a training battalion, always numbered the 10th The...

. After independence they were one of the regiments allocated to the Indian Army

Indian Army

The Indian Army is the land based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. With about 1,100,000 soldiers in active service and about 1,150,000 reserve troops, the Indian Army is the world's largest standing volunteer army...

. Today the battalion is the 1st Battalion, Mechanised Infantry Regiment

Mechanised Infantry Regiment

The Mechanised Infantry Regiment is an infantry regiment of the Indian Army. It is one of the youngest regiments in the army, and though it was formed as a result of lessons learned in the 1965 Indo-Pak War, to give infantry battalions greater mobility, it was the mastermind of late Gen K Sundarji...

of the Indian Army.

Changes in designation

• 13th Carnatic Battalion - 1776
• 13th Madras Battalion - 1784
• 2nd Battalion, 3rd Madras Native Infantry - 1796
• 13th Madras Native Infantry - 1824
• 13th Madras Infantry - 1885
• 73rd Carnatic Infantry - 1903
• 1st Battalion, 3rd Madras Regiment-1922
• 1st Battalion, The Madras Regiment-1947
• 1st Battalion, The Mechanised Infantry Regiment - 1979