Hasan Muhammad was a Punjabi Mussalman from the Jhelum District. After he joined the 4th Bombay Native Infantry in 1885 at Mhow his leadership qualities were soon noticed, and he was a skilled instructor of recruits. He was employed in this role when the regiment went on active service to East Africa in 1898 so that he missed out on that campaign. He reached the rank of Subadar-Major on 2 Nov 1908 and was later titled Sardar Bahadur. He was the most senior Indian officer in the regiment during the 104th’s service in Mesopotamia. When the regiment marched from Ctesiphon to Kut in December 1915 the men were tired and hungry. He set a good example by marching with them instead of riding a horse which he was ordered to do for the last 10 miles. When the men were starving during the defence of Kut, Hasan persuaded the Muslims to eat mule meat (and the Hindus soon followed suit) which gave them the strength to survive captivity after the British in Kut were forced to surrender. When the regiment were prisoners of the Turkish army Hasan proved his courage and leadership. The regimental history says:
“The Turks made great efforts to win over the Mussalmans, both officers and men, but met with very little response. In this respect, our Subadar-Major Hasan Muhhamad, set a fine example. Being far removed from the support of any British officers he acted entirely on his own responsibility from a deep sense of loyalty to the British Raj.
‘While at Eski Shahir about June 1917 two Indians in the Prisoners-of-War Camp went over to the Turks. Discussing this, Hasan Muhammad remarked that he would rather shoot them with his own hand than approve such disloyalty. His words were apparently overheard and carried to the Camp Commandant who paraded him, abused him and sentenced him to 18 days solitary confinement on bread and water.’
He was punished again for refusing to pass on Red Cross money to the two ‘traitors’. When he and other Indian officers were taken to the Sultan of Turkey they were presented with ‘swords of honour’ to encourage them to transfer their allegiance. But Hasan threw it down and stamped on it, the others following suit. He and Subadar-Major Kitab Gul of the 120th Rajputana Infantry were marched off to suffer 3 weeks solitary confinement. He was subsequently appointed to the Order of British India and received the French Croix-de-Guerre.
While the regiment were at Kotkai in June 1920, Honorary Captain Hasan Muhammad retired. He had returned to the depot because he was not fully recovered from the hardships of captivity. As Lt-Col Frank James says in his history of the regiment; 'He had an attractive personality and great influence with all classes in the Battalion.’ He had served for more than 34 years.
