Hi Digby,

The answer is in practice a tad complex, but I understand that by 'our' period - certainly from the Cornwallis reforms of 1798 - the Bengal regiments of Native Infantry carried a Kings and Regimental Colour (e.g. see the footnote on p. 371 of "An Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the Bengal Native Infantry" by Williams - it's on Google Books). Bombay I believe followed the same practice, but I'm unaware of any explicit directions or notes I can cite.

In the case of Madras, things are more explicit. There was an ordinance in 1801 that directed the usual King's and Regimental Colours, and gave fairly detailed directions about the design of the regimental colour. For those not faced with white, red or black, the field was their facing colour, with the Union flag in the upper canton, with white- and red- faced regiments using a white field, with the cross of St. George, and the union in the upper inner canton, and for black-facing regiments, black with a St. George's flag, but the union taking the whole of the upper inner canton. I've seen this in the Madras papers of the time, but they're also reproduced in "Historical Records of the XIII Madras Infantry" which can be snippet viewed in Google books, but also can be found in other places I think. From this and surviving fragments, I believe that in most cases (i.e. not red, white or black facings), the union was typically in the centre of the upper canton, and in the red- and white- faced regiments, the union took up part, but not all of the upper inner quarter.

Note that while in Bengal the facings were normally yellow, they were not as some argue universally yellow. It also seems likely that some regiments continued to use previous flags from the older facing colours from before the reorganisation at the end of the 1790s. In the case of the volunteer units sent to Mauritius and Java, I strongly doubt that official colours were sent, as these were constructed from detachments of other corps. Auxiliary regiments generally did not carry colours of any form, or at least not officially.

However, to add to the complication, specific regiments were given additional honours to carry on their regimental flag, of specified design and wording (e.g. the 18th and 19th, were stipulated to use a star in their upper canton for Seringapatam -- see Obit. of General Burrell in Gentleman's Magazine Vol. 97,part 2, p. 642, July-Dec. 1827; and the 15th and others received some design for Delhi - see same source). There appears on occasion to have been a case where these honours were on a specific colour, though my surmise is that this was usually for provisional and temporary units such as the Volunteer units that were raised at different points, and would often have been short-lived. It is possible that they were additional flags beyond the two for normal native units, but I suspect this is in fact a misreading, and those "honorary flags" were simply regimental colours with additional honours embroidered on them.

I don't know if that's useful, but if you've got any further questions, let me know. I'm finishing the draft of a book on the period in the East Indies, and I've tried to untangle the pretty huge mess that is the forces of both sides in the region.

Best regards,

George