On the 18th of September the Bombay portion of the "Army of the Indus" left Cabool en route for India. The column reached Ghuznee by the same road it had advanced, and from thence proceeded to Quetta, where it arrived on the 31st of October.
The SEVENTEENTH regiment was afterwards detached, under Major-General Sir Thomas Willshire, against the Khan of Khelat, to reduce this treacherous chief to submission. On the morning of the 13th of November, after a previous march, some fighting, and the assault of the heights commanding the approach to Khelat, on which the enemy had six guns in position, the gate of this strong fortress was blown open, and the second and SEVENTEENTH British and thirty-first Bengal regiments charged into the town in the face of two thousand Beloochees, the élite of the nation, who disputed every foot of ground to the walls of the inner citadel. British valour was, however, triumphant, and the capture of the last stronghold of Beloochistan was accomplished. In this desperate defence the Khan and many of his chiefs were slain. Here also, as at Ghuznee, a standard was taken by the regiment.
The regiment had six rank and file killed; Captain L. C. Bourchier, three serjeants, and twenty-nine rank and file wounded.
Lieut.-Colonel Croker caused the names of Colour-Serjeants J. Dunn and Mills to be entered in the records of the regiment, on account of their bravery at Khelat.
The Chiefs, who had joined in hostile designs against the British interest, having been removed, and a friendly monarch placed on the throne of Affghanistan, a medal was given by the Government of India to the officers and soldiers present at the storming of Ghuznee, which the Queen authorized them to accept and wear.
Her Majesty Queen Victoria was graciously pleased to approve of the regiment bearing on its colours the words "Affghanistan," "Ghuznee," and "Khelat," to commemorate its distinguished conduct in enduring the toils and privations of the campaign in Affghanistan with patient fortitude; its gallantry at the storming of Ghuznee on the 23rd of July; and its heroic conduct at the taking of Khelat on the 13th of November, 1839. Lieut.-Colonel Croker and Major Pennycuick were nominated Companions of the Order of the Bath; and the latter obtained the brevet rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.
Lieut.-Colonel Croker, Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Pennycuick, and Major Deshon were nominated members of the order of the "Dooranée Empire," newly instituted by Shah Shooja, on being restored to the throne of Affghanistan. Major Deshon received the brevet rank of Lieut.-Colonel, and Captain Darley that of Major.
Soon after the capture of Khelat, the regiment continued its journey back to the British territory in India, and arrived in Scinde in December.
1840
On the 6th of February, 1840, the regiment embarked in boats on the great river Indus, and sailed to Tatta, where it arrived on the 13th; eight days afterwards it marched for Kurrachee; and on the 16th of March four companies, and the head-quarters, embarked on board the Hannah transport, and were wrecked on a sand-bank off the mouth of the Indus on the following day. They re-embarked on board the Bernice steamer on the 26th of March, and arrived at Bombay on the 29th of that month.