Burma Military Police

'The Burma Military Police is a semi-military force intended to perform at the cheapest possible cost :

a. Frontier Watch and Ward duties

b. Deal with minor insurrections amongst the less civilized hill tribes

c. transport treasure

d. guard and transport long term prisoners to and from jail.'

In 1886 the British authorities wished to reduce the cost of garrisoning Upper Burma and the Burma Military Police was raised to replace regular Indian Army units.

European Officers were seconded from the Indian Army (and sometimes from the British Army) and Indian Officers and men were recruited from the Punjab and Nepal. Favoured classes were Gurkhas, Pathans, Garwhalis, Punjabi Muslims, Kumaonis and Dogras. Pensions could be received after 15 years service.

Non-Indians were first recruited in 1909 when Chins were accepted in some units. This was followed by the recruitment of Kachins and other hill tribes, with very few Burmans being enlisted.

Another definition of duties, applicable to frontier battalions rather than those in the large towns, was:

The duties of the force on the frontier are :

Policing the frontier.

Repelling local raids.

Providing escorts to civil officers.

Furnishing columns for such work as the slave releasing in the Triangle and Hukawng valley and punitive columns.

Intelligence.

Many Gurkhas served in the Burmese Military Police. Probably the best single source explaining the origins and evolution of most, if not all, the numerous BMP battalions raised since 1886 may be found in The Lineages and Composition of the Gurkha Regiments in the British Service (J.L. Chapple, 1985) published by the Gurkha Museum

Chronology

• 1886 a number of units (including the Mogaung Levy) raised for service in Upper Burma
• 1914 Putao Battalion raised
• 1920 Putao Battalion disbanded
• 1937 became the Burma Frontier Force on separation of Burma from India
• 1945 became the Burma Frontier Constabulary

External Links

• Burma Military Police British Empire website
  
• Burma Frontier Constabulary British Empire website
  
• Burma Military Police and Burma Frontier Force Steve Rothwell’s The Burma Campaign
• "The Kachin Hills Uprising: Burma from January to February 1915" by Harry Fecitt from Harry’s Sideshows kaiserscross.com
• "The Kuki Rising 1917-1919: Insurrection in north-eastern India and Burma" by Harry Fecitt from Harry’s Sideshows kaiserscross.com
• The Menin Gate: Memorial to the Burma Military Police oucs.ox.ac.uk. The Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing stands at the eastern exit of Ypres in Flanders, Belgium
• John Eric Colenso: British Officer in the Gurkha Rifles by Ann Collins 24th August 2014 html version, pdf. colensostudy.id.au. He was appointed to the 2/7th Gurkha Rifles in 1907 and seconded to the Burma Military Police (BMP) in1909. During WW1 was with the 2/7th Gurkha Rifles in Egypt and then on the Western Front with the 2/39th Garhwal Rifles, and then with the 2nd/2nd Gurkhas. Back in India, he took part in the 3rd Afghan War with the 2/7th Gurkhas and was then with the BMP 1919- c 1922, when he was transferred to the 3rd Gurkha Rifles and took part in the actions in Waziristan 1922-1923. He retired in 1932.
• Photograph: A member of the Burma Military Police in normal duty dress, 1930 (c) National Army Museum
• Colonel Terence Conner When the Burma Rebellion, led by Saya San ‘The Magician King’, broke out in 1930 Conner was given command of the Eastern Battalion of the Burma Military Police and sent into the jungle to destroy the rebels, who deprived of food and forced into the open were crushed by the end of 1932. oldhonitonians.com
• Account of Capt. G.J. Stapleton. I.A., Burma Frontier Force: Retreat from Myitkyina 1942 . He was awarded the King´s Police and Fire Service Medal, for Gallantry. spink.com 25 Apr 2013

Historical books online

• "Police : Military" by Lieut-Colonel S C F Peile, Inspector-General of Police, Burma, page 246 Twentieth century impressions of Burma : its history, people, commerce, industries, and resources, edited by Arnold Wright 1910 seasiavisions.library.cornell.edu
• The Pacification of Burma 
by Sir Charles Crosthwaite. Chief Commissioner of Burma 1887-1890 1912 Archive.org. This edition which has illustrations, is missing first page of Preface.
  • Page 131 footnote refers to History of the Burma Military Police by Lieut-Colonel S C F Peile (Rangoon 1906). This book is available at the National Library of India, Calcutta
• "The Burma and Assam Military Police" page 94 Report Of The Army In India Committee 1919-20 (1920) Archive.org.