IMPERIAL KHAKI

A brass paperweight in the form of the 19th Indian Division's formation sign: A hand stabbing down with a dagger. In November 1944 the troops of the 19th Indian Division became the first to stab through the Japanese defensive lines in Burma. And they didn't stop slicing through the enemy until they raised their flag at Fort Dufferin. Today, the 'Dagger Division' is the Indian Army's 19th Mountain Division – its glittering dagger just as sharp and poised to strike.

A watercolour of the badge of the 120th Rajputana Infantry: the Imperial emblem of Persia – a lion holding a sword beneath a rising sun. The Anglo-Persian War was fought in 1856 and 1857 in what is now Iran. In the thick of the action were Indian infantry, cavalry, and sappers & miners. Among them was the 2nd Battalion, 10th Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry. Their courage earned them the battle honour of Persia, and the Imperial Persian Lion became the emblem of the 120th R

A brass, wood and sterling silver plaque with the crest of the Royal Indian Artillery. On it is inscribed their timeless motto: Izzat O Iqbal – Honour & Glory. Havildar (Sergeant) Umrao Singh Yadav demonstrated the meaning of Izzat O Iqbal in the Kaladan Valley, Burma, in 1944. When his small gun position was attacked by wave after wave of Japanese infantry, they ran out of ammunition. So, Havildar Umrao Singh Yadav armed himself with a 'gun bearer' (a crowbar-like rod that w

A brass boat badge from HMS Sussex, the heavy cruiser that arrived in Singapore in September 1945, to accept the surrender of the Japanese forces in Malaya. What is less well known is that to make it happen, the Fifth Indian Division, after figthting their way down Burma, arrived with her to take control of the situation. Tough, experienced and battle-hardened, they were one of the few Allied formations that fought without a break, across the world, in Africa, in the Middle E