these cities. Aftermath Lord Dalhousie proclaimed annexation of the Punjab on 29 March 1849. His foreign secretary, Henry Meirs Elliot, arrived at Lahore to obtain the signatures of the members of the Council of Regency and of the minor king, Maharaja Duleep Singh. A darbar was held in the Lahore Fort and, with the British troops lined up on his right and his helpless Sardars on his left, the young Duleep Singh affixed his signatures to the document which deprived him of his crown and kingdom. The Sikh defeat had several causes. Their administration of the population of the Punjab had been poor, which meant that their large armies found it difficult to find enough food while the East India Company had brought overwhelming force against them. The Sikh Wars gave the two sides a mutual respect for each other's fighting prowess (although the war itself had been unchivalrously fought; the Sikhs took no prisoners at Chillianwala, and the British had taken no prisoners at Gujrat). There was an increased recruitment of people from various communities of the Punjab in the Punjab Irregular Force under British command. These recruits fought for the East India Company during the Indian Rebellion of 1857, against the mutineers and other opponents (mostly high-caste Hindus from Eastern provinces, and forces or loyalists of Shia, Maratha and Mughal rulers). These Punjabi recruits had especially little sympathy with the Hindu mutineers of the Bengal Army, ironically contributed to by the latter's role in helping the British in the Anglo-Sikh wars. A long history of enmity of the Sikhs with Mughal rule did not help the mutineers' cause either, given their choice of Bahadur Shah Zafar as a symbolic leader. Battle honour The battle honour "Punjaub" was distributed with a free hand to all regiments employed in the operations of the Anglo-Sikh Wars during 1848–49 vide Gazette of the Governor General 277 of 1849, and the list of regiments honoured was issued vide. GoGG 803 of 1853. The Bombay Army was awarded separately and the spelling was changed from 'Punjaub' to 'Punjab' vide Gazette of India No. 1079 of 1910. Forty of the honoured units of the Bengal Army were consumed by the Mutiny. India has now raised a memorial at Ferozepore to pay homage to men of the Sikh Khalsa Army who laid down their lives in the Anglo-Sikh Wars and the battle honour is considered to