This photograph of ‘twakow’ lighter vessels docked along the banks of the Singapore River comes from the album of Sergeant B.W. Turner of the 1/4th Battalion, King's Shropshire Light Infantry. Turner served in one of the battalion’s companies that was sent to Singapore in February 1915 to assist in putting down the Sepoy Mutiny.The King’s Shropshire Light Infantry (KSLI) was a British military regiment formed in 1881 through the merger of the 53rd (Shropshire) Regiment and the 85th King's Light Infantry. The 4th Battalion of the KSLI was created in 1908 from members of the Shropshire Rifle Volunteer Corps, who had served with the 2nd Battalion of the regiment during the South African War (1899-1902). Following the outbreak of the First World War in July 1914, the 1/4th Battalion was moved from its base in Shrewsbury, the main town of Shropshire county, to Bombay, India, arriving in December. The battalion was subsequently deployed to Rangoon, Burma. Following the outbreak of the Sepoy Mutiny (also known as the Singapore Mutiny or Indian Mutiny) in Singapore on 15 February 1915, six companies from the 1/4th Battalion were sent to Singapore to help the local authorities put down the uprising. The troops arrived on 20 February to find the mutiny already over, but stayed on to assist in mopping up operations.
