The 7th Bengal Light Cavalry carried a guidon for each of the three squadrons. These photos, of two of them, were reproduced in the Cavalry Journal no.35 published before or during the First World War. The colours of the flags are not known but an article on Indian Cavalry Standards in another issue of the Cavalry Journal (date unknown) describes three standards that, at the time, hung in the hall of the Commander-in-Chief in India’s Simla residence, named ‘Snowdon’. The dimensions of these standards corresponded with those laid down for the Bengal Light Cavalry immediately prior to the Mutiny. There was no number to indicate to which regiment they belonged. The three standards at Simla were described:
‘One is a Royal or First Squadron standard, blue in colour and bearing the Royal Arms; whilst the other two are crimson Second Squadron standards, with the East India Company’s arms. They are in a very fair state of preservation, though one has been ‘split’, i.e. only one side of it exists, which has been backed with buckram or some similar stiff material.’
The two guidons shown here are only two of those of the 7th BLC, being the First or CO’s Squadron Guidon, and one of the other two squadron guidons. The CO’s guidon has a small Union Jack in the upper canton, and in the centre, the arms of the East India Company: a shield with a red cross with a small arms of England and France quarterly in the top corner. On top, a crest with a lion rampant holding an imperial crown. The arms supported by two lions holding English banners. The motto, ‘Auspicio Regis et Senatus Angliæ’ beneath. This guidon is probably crimson.
The Squadron Guidon identified the regiment with a 7 inside LIGHT CAVALRY above, and BENGAL below, surrounded by a Union wreath of roses, thistles and shamrocks. The wreath is topped by the EIC lion rampant. The four small wreaths contain; in the top left a horse and rider with a standard, in the lower left the date 1805 when the 7th was raised, and unclear devices which look like cavalry trumpets in the two wreaths on the right. The colour of this guidon is probably orange which was the colour of the facings. The date of these guidons is not known but probably c1820s.
