Sgt. Harry Singh
Birth: Punjab, 1878
Occupation: Soldier
Biography: Harbinder Singh was born to a poor but devout farming family of Mazhabi Sikhs in the Punjab, not far from the city of Amritsar. His father farmed a small amount of land on which he grew wheat and rice to sell to the Imperial authorities to feed his family. The racist attitudes of the day held that Mazhabis were a violent and criminal people, and few opportunities were presented to them, both from British officials and other Sikhs. Had he not signed up when he was 18, Harry Singh would have likely joined his father in a lifetime of backbreaking work and an early death. Instead, he took the only opportunity open to one of his caste, and joined the 34th Sikh Pioneers, an infantry regiment of the British Indian army. Initially, he served on the northern border of the Raj, fighting with distinction against Pashtun mujahideen, but in 1902, the 34th were among several regiments redeployed to Great Britain to man the trench lines on the edge of the Smog. The ditches and fortifications that cut through the once pretty countryside of England would be his home for the next decade. Life in the trenches was an odd mix of tedium and terror, for while most of the time the Smog merely loomed ominously, on occasion it spat out maddened cultists, stumbling undead, and monsters beyond description. Over the years, he rose to the rank of Sergeant, leading a troop of thirty men until one disastrous day in 1912. His line was beset by a horde of dead men that fell upon the trenches like a wave - only a handful of men, including Singh, survived. Unable to carry on, Sgt Singh resigned his post and enlisted in the Kings Extraordinary Regiment to take the fight into the Smog itself.
Comments
Post a Comment