The Burma Mounted Infantry was raised in Rangoon and comprised three companies of one hundred men from the 2nd Battalions of three regiments based in Burma: Essex Regiment, Durham Light Infantry and West Riding Regiment.
As they left Rangoon on 24 January 1900 a Burmese lady presented each man with a pink rose, the Burmese emblem of good luck and success.
Thank you to Justin Davies for this initial information.
Maurice (Vol 2, Ch 17) says they were present at Korn Spruit.
When the Boers disclosed their admirable ambush the main body of the cavalry was about half a mile in rear of the artillery. They at once took cover behind the railway station buildings.
The Burma mounted infantry battalion was facing the Modder in column of companies when the firing broke out in the Korn Spruit. Colonel Alderson at once sent the Durham Light Infantry company to the assistance of Q. battery. They galloped to the station buildings through a mob of loose horses, dismounted, and extended to the right and left of the guns. The two other companies of the battalion, with a company of the 2nd mounted infantry, moved on to the south of the unfinished railway.
