British Generals For Dimno

BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES OF SOME OF THE BRITISH GENERALS AND SENIOR OFFICERS WHO HAD PLAYED IMPORTANT ROLES IN CONQUERING THE CHIN/ZO PEOPLE ON BOTH SIDES OF THE PRESENT INDO-BURMA BOUNDARY Field Marshal Sir George Stuart White Field Marshal Sir George Stuart White, VC; GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO(4 July 1835-24 June 1912) was an officer of the British Army and recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces...

The Victoria Cross He was 44 years old when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC. On 6th October 1879 at Charasiah, Afghanistan, Major White led an attack on a strongly fortified hill where the enemy force outnumbered the major‘s by about eight to one. When his men became exhausted and immediate action seemed necessary, he took a rifle and, running forward alone, shot the enemy leader. This decided the issue and the enemy fled. Again, at the battle of Kandahar Major White led the final charge and personally captured one of the two guns held by the enemy, immediately after which the latter retired...(Source: Wikipedia under George Stuart White White) “Educated at Sandhurst, entered the Army in 1853; served in the Indian Mutiny with the 27th Inniskilling‚ Fusilieers, and in the Afghan War of 1879-80 with the 92nd Gordon Highlanders...From 1886-1889, he commanded the forces in Upper Burma, his operations against the armies of dacoits and banditti and his expeditions into the Hill recesses of the Frontier tribes did much to secure the pacification of the province. On the 8th of April 1893, he succeeded Lord Roberts as Commander-in- Chief in India, a post he held until his return to England in 1897, when he was appointed QuartermasterGeneral of the Forces in England. In 1899 he was selected to command the British forces in Natal, South Africa. His name is especially associated with the defence of Ladysmith.[The British lost 12,000 men at this battle.tzd]...In 1885 war broke out with Burma, and White was appointed to the command of the Madras army detailed for service in the region. The capture of Mandalay was easily effected by the troops under the command of General Prendergast, and at the conclusion of the war White was placed in command of the forces left for the protection of the province... Heartily co-operating with the civil authorities, he organized a system of movable columns which gave the enemy no rest, and at the close of the first two years the country was sufficiently pacified to allow the substitution of an organized police and military troops in the maintenance of internal order. White then directed his attention to the Frontier Tribes in the north and east and south, and was able by a series of well-planned expeditions to bring under the settled influence of British rule a tract comprising 50,000 square miles - a territory, that is to say, almost as large as England. “The success of these operations“, said the Government despatch, “which has involved great hardship and labour on the troops, and the satisfactory progress made towards the pacification of the country must be ascribed in a very large measure to the skill, judgment, and ability of Sir George White...“ Time.(Vum Ko Hau. pp. 396-398) Sir George White, after having conquered the Sizangs and built up a base at Thuklai village called FORT WHITE in the heart of the Sizang region, returned to Mandalay in mid February 1889. The base was later moved to what the Chins call “Thangmual“, about 9 km east of Thuklai on the Letha Range(see MAP 6 for its location). General Sir George Benjamin Wolseley, GCB.,(1907); KCB(1891):CB , Born 11 July 1839; son of Major Garnet J Wolseley, and brother of Field Marshal Viscount Wolseley, KP., GCB., GCMG., D.C.I., LL.D.; educated privately...Major-General by selection 1892; served with 84th Foot in Indian Mutiny(medal); Asst. Adj. Gen in Afghan campaign(medal and Brevet Lieut-Col);...Brigadier- General in Burma campaign, held the first Durbar in the Chin Hills for the formal submission of the following Siyin Chiefs: Chief Khup Pau of Khuasak; Chief Thuk Kham of Lunmun; Chief Kam Lam of Sumniang; Chief Pau Khai of Buanman, and Chief Mang Lun of Sakhiling[Lim Khai], “On the 1st September 1890, at a Durbar held by Brigadier-General Wolseley , who was on inspection duty in the Chin Hills, the Siyin Chiefs formally took the oath of submission and friendship to the British Government and accepted Captain Rundall‘s terms, which included the surrender of all slaves and a promise to cease raiding on the plains and cutting telegraph wires...“(Vum Ko Hau, p. 400)

Major-General Sir William Penn Symons, KCB., CB , Born July 17, 1843; son of William Symons: educated privately; joined 24th Regt. 1863); served in the Kafir and Zulu wars 1878-79; to India 1880; AAG for musketry, Madras 1882;DAQMG in the Burmese expedition 1885-86; commanded mounted infantry; Brigadier-General in the Chin Field Force; commanded the Burma Column in Chin-Lushai Expedition 1889; C.B. 1890; AAG for musketry, Bengal, 1893; commanded as Brigadier in the Panjab 1895; a Brigade in Waziristan 1894; Tochi 1898; and a Division in Tirah 1897-98; commanded the forces in Natal 1899; died October 23, 1899 of his wounds at assault of Talana Hill.(Vum Ko Hau, p. 401) Major-General Albert Fytche, C.S.I , General Fytche, later Chief Commissioner of British Burma, was born in 1823 and educted at Rugby and Addiscombe. At the age of sixteen he obtained his commission in the Bengal army, and(like many distinguished men) commenced work in earnest at an early age. Before he was twenty, while serving as a lieutenant in the Arakan Local Battalion, he did credit to Rugby and Addiscombe while gaining his first laurels(1841) by routing out and punishing a wild hill-tribe known as the Walleng(Whualngo Lushai Chin) who had committed several raids on the British frontier. It was a difficult service. The position to be attacked was on a precipious mountain, 4,000 feet high, with sides so steep that the inhabitants of the place could only ascend it by ladders. In the face of strong opposition Lieutenant Fytche dislodged the enemy, and for this gallant attack received the thanks of the British Government. In 1845 he joined the Commission of Arakan...The tribes on the Arakan frontier and region beyond - wild, savage people, of a very primitive type - occupied General Fytche‘s attention...(Vum Ko Hau, p. 404) Major-General Donald Macintyre, V.C., F.R.G.S. , Born 1832; educated at Addiscombe; entered the army 1850; with the 66th Gurkhas in the Peshwar frontier expedition: 1852-64; with the Gurkhas in the Lushai-Chin expedition 1871-72; gained the V.C., climbed over a stockade 8 to 9 feet high under heavy fire; Brevet Lieut-Colonel; in the Afghan war 1878- 79 commanded 2nd Gurkhas in the Khyber and in the Bazar valley; retired as Major-General 1880; F.R.G.S., wrote Wanderings and Wild Sports on and beyond the Himalaya Himalaya; died April 15, 1903.(Vum Ko Hau, p. 401) Sir Bertram Sausmarez Carey, K.C.I.E., C.S.I., C.I.E., V.D. Commissioner of Sagaing Division, Burma, since 1909, born 1864; son of late Rev. Alfred H. Carey; married Mary, daughter of late I.D. Chepmell; educated Bedford Grammar School. Appointed to Burma Police 1886; Political Officer in Chin Hills and the first Suprintendent(Deputy Commissioner) 1889-95; died 11 July 1919. Has a son Major Rupert S. Carey, O.B.E., formerly of the Tiddim Chin Levies; later became General Manager, Burmah Oil Company, Rangoon.(Vum Ko Hau, p. 401) John Shakespear, Lieut.-Colonel. Born Sept. 1, 1861; son of Colonel Sir R.C. Shakespear, C.B.: educated at Wellington College; entered the army in 1881 and became Major 1895; Intelligence Officer, Lushai and Chin-Lushai Expeditions 1888-89; D.S.O; Superintendent, South Lushai Hills 1891-96; C.I.E. 1896; joined the Indian Staff Corps 1896, Deputy Commissioner, Assam; author of The Lushais and the Land They Live in; The Lushei Kuki Clans. Clans.(Vum Ko Hau, p. 403) Lieut.-Colonel F.S. Le Quesne Quesne, V.C. Lieutenant-Colonel F.S. Le Quesne, V.C., who won the decoration in 1889 for conspicuous breavery while serving as a surgeon during the attack on the village of Tartan, Upper Burma, died on April 14, 1950 at the age of 86. Ferdinand Simeon Le Quesne, who was the third son of the late Lieutenant-Colonel Giffard N. Le Quesne, Royal Jersey Artillery, was born in Jersey on Christmas Day, 1863. After being at school in the Channel Islands he received his medical training at King‘s College Hospital, London. Preferring a career in the service to that of a private practitioner, he joined the

army medical service, and in 1889 was called upon to serve in the Burma Expedition. On May 4 of that year he was with a column of the Chin Field Force attacking the village of Tartan. In the course of the operations Second Lieutenant Michel, of The Norfolk Regiment, was lying wounded within five yards of the loopholed stockade from which the enemy was maintaining a continuous fire. Surgeon Le Quesne, notwithstanding the fire, with perfect coolness and self-possession, went to the aid of Michel and remained with him for 10 minutes dressing his wounds. Le Quesne then turned his attention to other wounded and while attending to another officer was himself severely wounded. In addition to being awarded the Victoria Cross, which was gazetted on October 29, 1889, Le Quesne was mentioned in dispatches and received the medal and clasp for the campaign. He saw further service the next year with the Chin-Lushai Field Force and in 1891 with the Wuntho Field Force. Le Quesne reached his majority in 1898, just before the outbreak of the South African War he continued to serve and he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in 1906. Lieutenant-Colonel Le Quesne, who retired in 1918, was in his younger days a fine shot and an able player at rackets and lawn tennis. He was unmarried. - Time Time. London. (Vum Ko Hau, p. 399)

Note: The biographies of other outstanding British military officers such as General Faunce, General Sir H. Keary, General Bourchier, General Nuthall, Major-General R.C. Stuart, Brigadier-General Macquoid and Brigadier-General Tregear, etc., who also had played prominent roles in conquering the Chin/Zo people, will be added here as soon as enough information about them is obtained. Thang Za Dal. June 2009

Source: PROFILE OF A BURMA FRONTIER MAN by Dr. Vum Ko Hau Published privately the Author Bandung, Indonesia. 1963