North West Frontier Campaigns

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North West Frontier Campaigns
1849-1947
Chronological list of Wars and Campaigns
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Location:
Combatants:
East India Company and British Army North West Frontier tribes
Result: Suppression of border incursions
Medals:
India General Service medal 1854
India Medal 1895-1902
Links:
Category: Category:North West Frontier Campaigns


From 1849 when the East India Company annexed the Punjab it became necessary to prevent incursion by the frontier Pakhtun tribes. Successive punitive expeditions subdued particular areas until further outrages occurred. Control of the region depended to a large extent on the Punjab Frontier Force recruited from local tribesmen commanded by British officers.

North West Frontier Expeditions

For a list of campaigns in order see

Medals

British Library holdings

India Office Records include:

Imperial War Museums holdings

The Imperial War Museums are a source of information about operations in Waziristan. Search the catalogue.

Catalogue entry for the publication Bibliography of sources in the Departments of Documents, Photographs, Printed Books and Sound Records at the Imperial War Museum on military operations in Waziristan on the North West Frontier of India 1917-1937, published c 1979.

Individual accounts

  • Francis Stockdale was deployed to Waziristan in 1919. He was a temporary R. E. officer and served late 1919 to Dec 1921. His book Walk Warily in Waziristan is the subject of a BBC News article [1].
  • Walter James Cumming served as an officer in the indian Army from 1915, with the South Waziristan Scouts, 1917-1924, the 5th Bn 12th Frontier Force Regiment (Corps of Guides) 1924-1941, and in command of the 3rd Bn 14th Punjab Regiment 1941-1943. His book is Frontier Fighting: On Active Service in Waziristan: The Memoirs of Major James Cumming. (edited by Jules Stewart 2010 Pen & Sword)
  • John Morris served as an officer in the Indian Army with the 3rd Queen Alexandra’s Own Gurkha Rifles from 1918 until 1934 in Palestine, Afghanistan (the Third Afghan War in 1919), Waziristan and the North West Frontier of India.[2] His autobiography Hired to Kill, Some Chapters of Autobiography was published in 1960. (London, Rupert Hart-Davis ).
  • John Prendergast was awarded the Military Cross when serving with the Tochi Scouts (North Waziristan Transborder Armed Police) in May 1937.[3] His books include an autobiography Prender’s Progress: a soldier in India, 1931-47.
  • John Archibald Hislop was an officer in the Indian Army, 2nd Battalion 9th Jat Regiment from 1933. He had a series of postings on the North West Frontier. Subsequently he was GS02 Waziristan District until c.August 1943. His memoirs A Soldier’s Story-From the Khyber Pass to the Jungles of Burma: The Memoir of a British Officer in the Indian Army 1933-1947 were published by his daughter in 2010 and reviewed in FIBIS Journal 26.
  • John Masters was an officer with the 2nd Battalion 4th Gurkha Rifles from 1935.[4] His autobiography Bugles and a Tiger was first published in 1956 and covers the Waziristan Campaign 1936-39.
  • Graham F Reed was a junior officer in the Royal Signals Corps in his early twenties who was a Signals Officer with a Mountain Gun Regiment based at Razmak in Waziristan in 1945-47. His book is Walks in Waziristan.

Also see

External Links

Maps

Histories

  • The kidnapping of Mollie Ellis from Kohat cantonment by Afridi tribesmen from the Khyber Pass region 14 April 1923 and the rescue expedition which included Mrs Lilian Starr matron at the Peshawar Mission Hospital. Photographs from the Illustrated London News (26 May 1923) on Flickr. An account of her rescue mission Tales of Tirah and Lesser Tibet by Lilian A Starr was published 1924.
  • "Waziristan's last soldier" by Zubeida Malik BBC 8 November 2008 with a slideshow of photographs. Frank Leeson spent two years commanding 1,000 Khassadars- Waziri soldiers- between 1946 and 1948, the last surviving British officer to have served in North Waziristan.

Pictures

Historical books online

Recommended Reading

Campaigns on the North-West Frontier by Capt H.L.Nevill DSO 1916
Reprinted by The Naval & Military Press Ltd 2005
ISBN 1-845741-87-0
Imperial Frontier: Tribe & State in Waziristan by Dr Hugh Beattie
Routledge 2001
ISBN 0700713093 and ISBN 978-0700713097

References

  1. Why Britons walked warily in Waziristan, Alastair Lawson, BBC News, 21 April 2008 with photographs
  2. John Morris at Keio University 1938-1942 by William Snell, page 2 of the pdf
  3. Obituary: John Prendergast 1910-2008 The Telegraph 03 March 2008
  4. John Masters Wikipedia