76-605: Major General Sir Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend , KCB , DSO (21 February 1861 – 18 May 1924) was a British soldier who during the World War I led an overreaching military campaign in Mesopotamia . His troops were besieged and captured at the Siege of Kut (December 1915 – April 1916), which was possibly the worst defeat suffered by the Allies. Controversially and in contrast to
152-567: A Melbourne native who brought no dowry. He was the great-great-grandson of Field Marshal George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend . His paternal grandfather, Rev. George Osborne Townshend (1801–1876), was the son of politician Lord John Townshend , the second son of the first marquess. He was very ambitious and nourished high hopes of inheriting the family title and the family estate at Raynham Hall in Norfolk, as his cousin Viscount Raynham ,
228-628: A "vigorous and rapid pursuit by the naval flotilla on Amarah". He had a very low opinion of the Marsh Arabs whom he regarded as "great scoundrels and even murderers" good only for looting, dismissively referring to them as the "Salvation Army". In the Ottoman Empire, the state religion was Sunni Islam and the Marsh Arabs, being Shia Muslims , were oppressed by the Ottoman state; Townshend could have won
304-415: A Royal Marine officer, he strictly speaking should not have been part of an Army expedition, but he wrote to General Garnet Wolseley asking if he could go, and his request was granted. The way that Gordon had defied the orders of the government to leave Khartoum, knowing full well that the government could not abandon a national hero like himself and would have to send out a relief expedition to save him made
380-474: A braver. Alone he came on and on, until about 150 yards from us, and then he and his flag fell like a piece of crumpled white paper on the ground, and lay motionless. After the annihilating defeat of the Ansar , as Townshend looked over the battlefield full of thousands of dead Ansar , he wrote in his diary, "I think Gordon has been avenged now". Townshend's "playboy" life-style finally came to an end when he married at
456-573: A captain in the Indian Army. His fame allowed him to develop friendships with the two social groups whose approval he most craved—the aristocracy and actors, especially the stars of the West End theatre scene. He visited the family that rented Balls Park from the Townshend family, leading him to write in his diary: The Phillips were very kind to me, and I spent all Sunday going about the house and grounds. It
532-688: A command in the British Army, he was given a staff job in the Bedfordshire Regiment , which led to him to write that the regiment was not prestigious enough for him, and what he wanted was a position in the newly raised Irish Guards . After much lobbying on his part, the War Office gave him a posting with the Royal Fusiliers instead. His time with that regiment was not a happy one as Townshend constantly fought with his commanding officer, and he wrote
608-723: A command on the Western Front but was refused. In April 1915, Townshend was appointed to the command of the 6th (Poona) Division in Mesopotamia, tasked with protecting the British Empire's oil production assets in Persia from Ottoman Imperial attack. He arrived in Basra from India in April to take up his post. General Townshend was ordered by his commanding officer, General John Nixon , to advance
684-594: A general would ask a mere captain not even under his command to take charge of one of his battalions. During battles with the Islamic fundamentalist Ansar of the Sudan from 1896 to 1899, culminating in Omdurman, he was promoted by Kitchener to major and was mentioned in dispatches for outstanding bravery for the fourth and fifth time. Townshend's attitude towards non-white soldiers has been noted as "puzzling", as "like most officers of
760-423: A great impression on Townshend, as did the power of the press and its ability to rouse public opinion in favour of heroic generals besieged by Islamic fanatics. A passionate Francophile who spoke fluent French, Townshend preferred to be addressed as "Alphonse" – something which often annoyed his colleagues, who regarded his "Frenchified" manners as extremely snobbish and off-putting. An intensely ambitious man, he
836-510: A little bit more formal with no clothes on. Townshend insists the guy accompanies him on the inspection then and there with no clothes on, which obviously the officer hated, but would have been loved by the men in the trenches! An extremely aggressive commander whose natural inclinations were for the offensive, Townshend was all for taking Baghdad, and his successes encouraged him. In a letter to his wife, he described his advance: Major general (United Kingdom) Major general ( Maj Gen )
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#1732851263850912-503: A long series of letters to the War Office asking them for a promotion and a transfer to a more prestigious regiment, who replied that he had already received enough. In early 1903, Townshend was sent to Burma to join the 1st battalion of his regiment. After arriving in Rangoon on 6 April 1903, Townshend wrote: We were at anchor in the stream at Rangoon at 9 a.m., and after two hours of monkey tricks and chinoiserie about plague inspections by
988-604: A major general. In addition, the senior officer of the Royal Army Chaplains' Department , the Chaplain-General , is accorded "the relative precedence" – the respect, courtesies and insignia, rather than the full powers and authority – of the rank of major general. The office of Commandant General Royal Marines (CGRM), the professional head of the Royal Marines, was created at the rank of full general in 1943. In 1977,
1064-814: A regiment. Promoted to colonel in 1904, he became military attaché in Paris in 1905 and then transferred to the King's Shropshire Light Infantry in 1906. He went on to be Assistant Adjutant General for 9th Division in India in 1907 and commander of the Orange River Colony District in South Africa in 1908. As the commanding officer in the Orange River Colony, Townshend lived in Bloemfontein , where his wife caused
1140-749: A sensation by bringing French glamour and style to a place where the Afrikaans women dressed in a plain, modest style as befitting good Calvinists. Townshend's task in Blomfontein was much political as military as the British planned to unite the Transvaal, Orange River Colony, Natal and the Cape Colony into a new dominion to be called the Union of South Africa , and he had to help ensure that the defeated Boers accepted being part of
1216-460: A short while our line was all smoke and a ceaseless rattle of Martini rifles. The enemy came on till they reached 400 yards, and they seemed to enter a rain of bullets. Struck by a leaden tempest, they bundled over in heaps, and soon they stood huddled over in groups under the retaining power of the Martini Henry. I saw a brave man leading them with a large flag (I have his flag), I have never seen
1292-613: A typical Army officer of the day, another reason for his being seen to be slightly out of the mainstream professionally. In fact, he was not a comfortable man from the point of view of others in the Mess. Many officers found the proudly intellectual, Francophile "Alphonse" Townshend a difficult man to deal with, but the charismatic Townshend was very popular with the soldiers he commanded, both British and Indian. He made himself popular with his men by playing on his banjo and singing obscene, sexually explicit French songs in both French and English. He
1368-463: A visit to Paris, Townshend met Ferdinand Foch , who was quite critical of British policy towards Europe, warning that Germany was out to dominate the world and was Britain prepared to take a stand or not? Townshend wrote in his diary: General Foch asked me if I knew how many army corps the Germans will put into line....Did England contemplate the annexation of Belgium and the sea-board with equanimity? It
1444-578: Is a "two-star" rank in the British Army and Royal Marines . The rank was also briefly used by the Royal Air Force for a year and a half, from its creation in April 1918 until August 1919. In the British Army, a major general is the customary rank for the appointment of division commander. In the Royal Marines, the Commandant General holds at least the rank of major general. A major general
1520-463: Is most awfully sad to think of it all. A splendid old family like ours, and Lord Townshend cannot now afford to live at Raynham Hall in Norfolk, which is let to Sir Edmund Lacon, or at Balls Park, let to Mr Phillips; and from what I heard from Lord St. Levan the other day, Balls Park will have to be sold and most of the land at Raynham as well. To think of it all, and the last century there was no family more powerful than ours. … I wonder if ever I shall be
1596-660: Is senior to a brigadier but subordinate to a lieutenant general . The rank is OF-7 on the NATO rank scale , equivalent to a rear admiral in the Royal Navy or an air vice-marshal in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many Commonwealth countries. The rank insignia is the star (or 'pip') of the Order of the Bath , over a crossed sword and baton. In terms of orthography, compound ranks were invariably hyphenated prior to about 1980. Nowadays
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#17328512638501672-399: The Ansar . Besides battling the Ansar , Townshend spent his time perfecting his French, reading books of military history and French novels, learning Arabic and training his Sudanese soldiers when not entertaining them with his banjo. The years from 1896 to 1898 were some of the busiest for Townshend, as he spent half of his time fighting the Ansar in the Sudan and the other half romancing
1748-812: The Dogras . At this point, the Gilgit scouts were retreating and the Dogra forces had made gains in the Burzil pass. Under these circumstances, the Chitral scouts relieved the Gilgit scouts in Domel and Kamri sectors whilst the Chitral Bodyguard force went towards Skardu . The Chitral bodyguards under the leadership of a Chitral Prince laid one of the longest sieges in military history which ended with
1824-780: The Dorset Regiment , the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and above all the Sikh Twenty-second Punjabi Regiment , which he believed to be superior to any of the Ottoman forces operating in Mesopotamia. Whatever the excellence of its troops, Force D possessed no heavy guns and was deficient in supplies, including clean drinking water, wire-cutters, telephones, lights, tents, signal rockets, mosquito nets, telescopic sights, flares, helmets, hand grenades, periscopes and blankets. Most seriously, in light of events to follow, they lacked medical supplies and personnel. Townshend
1900-751: The Indo-Aryan migrations , after the decline of Indus Valley civilization . The Gankorineotek cemetery in Singoor is home to several ancient burial sites, dating back to the Vedic period . The area which now forms Chitral was reportedly conquered by the Persian Achaemenids and was a part of one of their easternmost satraps. In the third century CE, Kanishka , the Buddhist ruler of the Kushan empire , occupied Chitral. Under
1976-738: The Kushan Empire , occupied Chitral. In the 4th century AD, the Chinese overran the valley. Raees rule over Chitral began in 1320 and came to an end in the 15th century. From 1571 onwards Chitral was the capital of the princely state of Chitral under the rule of the Katur Dynasty . The existence of the Gandharan Grave Culture in Chitral, found in various grave sites scattered over its valleys gives an insightful knowledge of its inhabitants following
2052-685: The SS Armenian in early February 1900, and it was announced a couple of days later that he had been "selected for employment on special service in South Africa". He was appointed Assistant Adjutant General on the staff of the Military Governor for the Orange Free State in 1900 and then transferred to the Royal Fusiliers later that year. After lobbying the War Office for a promotion and
2128-452: The "cease fire" on my whistle, which the men obeyed very well. Then I dashed through the ranks, leading the Battalion about thirty yards ahead, the men following excellently. … A lot of men were firing as I called on the 12th to charge, waving them on. They broke into a rush with cheers we swept into the zareeba . How I wasn't hit I don't know. Kitchener was determined to have a railroad rather
2204-529: The 6th Division from Basra along the north-westerly course of the River Tigris , with the strategic objective of capturing the town of Amarah . Relations between the two men were poor, and within days of their meeting Townshend was writing letters to Nixon's superiors in India proposing himself as a better man to lead Force D. In late 1914, by occupying the Ottoman vilayet (province) of Basra (now in southern Iraq),
2280-515: The Army's Royal Flying Corps and the Navy's Royal Naval Air Service , so the ranks were a compromise between these two traditions. The insignia of the rank was derived from that of a Royal Navy rear-admiral and featured a broad gold stripe on the cuff below one narrow gold stripe. The two stripes were surmounted by an eagle (volant and affronty) under a King's crown. The RAF replaced the rank of major-general with
2356-740: The British Army, a division is commanded by a major general. However, other appointments may also be held by major generals. For example, the Commandant of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst is a major general. Until around the 1980s, the heads of each branch of service, such as the Royal Armoured Corps , the Royal Artillery and the Corps of Infantry , were major generals. Other, administrative, commands were also appointments for
Charles Townshend (British Army officer) - Misplaced Pages Continue
2432-544: The British Empire. Promoted to brigadier general in 1909, and major-general in 1911, Townshend was appointed General Officer Commanding of the Home Counties Division (April–October 1912) and the East Anglian Division (October 1912–June 1913), Commander of 9th Jhansi Brigade in India (June 1913–April 1914), and Commander of the 4th Rawalpindi Brigade in India (April 1914–April 1915). On 4 May 1911 during
2508-651: The British had achieved their strategic purpose of preventing the Ottomans from launching any offensive into the Khuzestan Province where all of the British-owned Persian oil fields were located. There was hence no real strategic need for the British to advance up the Tigris to take Baghdad , but both Nixon and Townshend were all for it for reasons of prestige. Of the troops under his command, Townshend most favoured
2584-613: The French aristocrat Alice Cahen d'Anvers whom he first met in Luxor when visiting Egyptian ruins on 19 February 1897, and whom he followed back to Cairo . On 22 June 1897, Townshend wrote in his diary in his post in the Sudan: The letter of the Comtesse d’Anvers is the sweetest I have ever had in my life. She writes as a mother to me. Never have I been touched like this. She and her daughter Alice are
2660-400: The Hunza tribesmen during the siege further added to his heroic lustre. Upon his return to London, Townshend had dinner at Buckingham Palace with Queen Victoria , who publicly thanked him as a hero of the recent campaign, an experience that helped to increase the size of his already ample ego. Afterwards, he was personally invested by the Queen with the Order of the Bath , a rare honour for
2736-443: The Kushans, many Buddhist monuments were built around the area, mainly Buddhist stupas and monasteries. The Kushans also patronised Buddhist art; some of the finest examples of the image of Buddha were produced in the region under the Kushan rule. From 1571 to 1969, Chitral was the dominion of the Kator Dynasty . The British and Sikh garrison suffered a siege by the Chitralis, possibly aided by Afghan forces, in 1895. The garrison
2812-410: The Marsh Arabs over to the Allied cause had he been willing to take the time to cultivate them. A moment in the campaign that captured much attention occurred when Townshend sailed into Bahran on the Espiegle at about 2:00 am to promptly capture the town without a shot being fired, a dramatic action that in the minds of the public sealed his heroic aura. To move faster, he transferred his headquarters to
2888-442: The Sudan to resume his battles with the Ansar . At the Battle of Omdurman , Townshend wrote: The masses of the enemy began rushing and cheering, the Emirs leading them with flags just as one sees with the Pathans on the North-West Frontier of India. I now began to think that it would not do to wait until this mass got much closer, so I sang out for sights to be put at 600 yards, and then opened with heavy independent fire, and in
2964-412: The Sudan, asked him to read over an early draft of his 1899 book The River War , Townshend in his notes attacked allies such as Sir Herbert Kitchener, Sir Archibald Hunter and Hector MacDonald , aka "Fighting Mac", as all having "got a reputation – perhaps greater than they can uphold." After Omdurman, Townshend resigned from the Egyptian Army to take up a staff position in the Punjab, but then refused
3040-444: The Viceroy Lord Curzon, who then gave him the staff job after all. The Second Boer War began in October 1899, and Townshend left England to go to South Africa, which was a violation of the rules, as he held a commission in the Indian Army at the time and should have returned to India. Even through he was not supposed to be in South Africa at all, he was able to secure himself a command in the war. Townshend left Southampton on board
3116-473: The advance went spectacularly well against numerically superior opposition in difficult and hostile terrain and climate, most of the Ottoman forces fleeing or surrendering with comparatively little fighting. Townshend began his advance on 31 May 1915 when he had his 18-pounder artillery guns open fire on the Ottoman trenches while his men in the bellums outflanked the Ottoman positions. He called his advance on Amarah "Regatta Week" as his fleet began what he called
Charles Townshend (British Army officer) - Misplaced Pages Continue
3192-402: The age of thirty-seven, which was late by the standards of the time. After Omdurman, he went to France and on 22 November 1898 married Alice Cahen D'Anvers in a Church of England ceremony at the Château de Champs-sur-Marne , despite the fact she was Jewish. C At this time, Townshend began to overplay his hand and alienate his superiors. When Winston Churchill , who had got to know him well in
3268-427: The armed steamer Comet , which he personally led into the town of Kila Salih, where its one 12-pounder gun cut down the Ottoman cavalrymen guarding the town. Townshend wrote that "Kila Salih seemed a town as large as Kurna. There was a great display of white flags on all the houses ...". He met with a local sheik to tell him that 15,000 Anglo-Indian troops were advancing on Amarah , misinformation which, as intended,
3344-402: The besieged garrison commander during the Siege of Chitral Fort on the North West Frontier in 1895, for which he was invested as a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB). The British never fully controlled the North-West Frontier, and from 2 March – 20 April 1895 an Indian force under the command of Captain Townshend sent to maintain a friendly ruler in remote Chitral was besieged instead by
3420-447: The best friends I have, and I look forward only to the time when I can get home and see them again. Thoughts of Cahen d'Anvers only took up part of his time as Townshend often found engaged in fierce fighting with the Ansar as he wrote about the Battle of Atbara on 8 April 1898 that: Alternately firing and rushing forward, I rapidly approached the Dervish position. The men were dropping fairly fast. … I led each rush myself, sounding
3496-518: The boats on the Nile supply his army as he advanced into the Sudan, and assigned its construction to a Canadian railroad builder, Sir Percy Girouard . As Girouard built the railroad from Cairo to supply Kitchener's army as it advanced on Khartoum, Townshend often had time for leave. On 8 May 1898 during a visit to Paris, Townshend wrote about his latest encounter with Cahen D'Anvers: At last we were together. I had long loved Alice Cahen D’Anvers and she loves me. Before luncheon, while we stood looking at
3572-403: The capital of the Lower Chitral District , and was previously the capital of Chitral District , and before that the capital of Chitral princely state . The region was encompassed into West Pakistan between the years 1969 and 1972. It has a population of 49,780 per the 2017 census. Nothing definitive is recorded about the town’s first settlers. In the 3rd century AD, Kanishka , the ruler of
3648-434: The day he assumed a natural British superiority over other races, but in Hunza, the Sudan, Burma, India, and later in Mesopotamia he was proud of his men and took good care of them, yet when the opportunity for advancement presented itself he abandoned them without a second thought". On 5 June 1896, he first encountered the Ansar , whom the British incorrectly called the "Dervishes" at the Battle of Ferkeh . Kitchener defeated
3724-419: The fall of Skardu, the surrender of the Dogras, and the capture of Baltistan . During this time, the Chitral scouts assimilated with the Gilgit scouts and went on towards taking the Kargil pass. The city has an average elevation of 1,500 m (4,921 ft). In contrast to more southerly valleys of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Chitral has a dry Mediterranean climate ( Köppen Csa ) with almost no rainfall during
3800-443: The few British officers who before 1914 had studied the writings of Ferdinand Foch , regarded at the time as France's premier military intellectual and via Foch, he discovered the writings of General Carl von Clausewitz . The British historian Hew Strachan described him: Townshend was a cultured man. He married a French wife, he was very fond of all things French, and he saw that as part of his character; in many ways therefore not
3876-405: The fort alive, and this we did. On 24 March 1895, Townshend wrote in his diary: "Incessant rain. There is nothing for the horses to eat, so we eat the horses." After a siege of forty-six days by Muslim Hunza tribesmen, the fortress was relieved by Captain Fenton Aylmer , and Townshend returned to Britain a national hero. The fact that he and his four hundred Indian troops were vastly outnumbered by
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#17328512638503952-455: The fort with illustrations advertising the latest plays popular in Paris. In January 1895, he was sent to north of Chitral , a remote town in the extreme north of India almost on the borders with the Russian Empire in what is now Pakistan in an area known as "the Roof of the World" owing to its extreme height. Townshend made his name in England as a British Imperial hero with the assistance of London's Fleet Street 's coverage of his conduct as
4028-451: The heir to the title, had no children until later in life. He was educated at Cranleigh School and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst . On graduation from Sandhurst, he was granted a commission with the Royal Marine Light Infantry in 1881. Townshend was a well-known "playboy" officer in his youth, famous for his womanizing, drinking, for playing the banjo while singing very bawdy songs and for spending an excessive amount of his time in
4104-457: The job, as he wanted a command in South Africa, writing to both Redvers Buller and Sir Evelyn Wood , asking to be sent to South Africa, where relations with the Transvaal were declining and war was thought likely. After learning that neither Buller and Wood were able or willing to do so, Townshend arrived in India to take the staff command in the Punjab, only to learn the position had already been filled, as he had refused it. He then went to meet
4180-431: The local tribesmen. After being defeated by the tribesmen following an attempt to storm the village, despite being outnumbered, Townshend ordered a retreat into the fort, writing: We had a long way to go; and from all the hamlets as we approached Chitral we were fired into from orchards and houses right and left, front and rear! It was now very dark. I saw there was nothing for it but to double or else none of us would reach
4256-462: The log fire in the library, I told her that whether I left the Sudan directly after Khartoum depended on her. If she would marry me I would leave it directly after we had taken Khartoum. Then she said: "If it depends on me you will not stay in the Sudan very long". I drew her to me and kissed her, putting my arms around her dear neck. It was worth waiting for, and all I had suffered last year, to be rewarded like this. Shortly afterwards, he returned to
4332-408: The means of restoring some of the old prestige to the family. A keen amateur military historian who took the study of military history very seriously, Townshend had developed a set of ideas about the "principle of economy of force", the "principle of mass" and the "adoption of the Napoleonic principles by Moltke", which he believed would guarantee victory to any general who followed them. He was one of
4408-405: The miserable captivity endured by his men, Townshend was held on Prinkipo , where he was treated like an esteemed guest until his release in October 1918. He was briefly a Conservative Member of Parliament from 1920 to 1922. Born in Great Union Street, Southwark , London, Townshend grew up in a prominent family, the son of a railway clerk, Charles Thornton Townshend (1840–1889), and Louise Graham,
4484-443: The music halls. He was often described by those who knew him as a "ladies' man" who was very popular with the opposite sex owing to his dashing personality and good looks. He was also known for his theatrical style, and he liked to associate with actors. In 1884, Townshend was part of the relief expedition to rescue the besieged army of General Charles Gordon , better known to the British public as "Chinese Gordon", at Khartoum . As
4560-494: The port doctor, the steamer was allowed to go in alongside the quay. … Alice of course dragged me out to see the great Pagoda of Shive Dagon and other pagodas; and the Burmese, Chinese, Indian and Portuguese bazaars and quarters of the city. I like the look of the Burmans, pretty well-built girls, many of them decidedly handsome and beautifully made, with glossy black hair. In 1904, Townshend returned to India, where he annoyed Kitchener by repeated requests that he be given command of
4636-457: The prizes of war a gigantic Persian carpet, which he had shipped back to England. He was popular with his men. McKnight of Sandhurst stated in an interview: Occasionally his quirky sense of humour plays quite well with the men. There was an occasion early on in the siege where he does a snap inspection twenty-four hours earlier than was expected and discovers the officer in command of the particular redoubt desperately trying to change into something
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#17328512638504712-405: The rank is almost equally invariably non-hyphenated. When written as a title, especially before a person's name, both words of the rank are always capitalised, whether using the "traditional" hyphenated style or the modern un-hyphenated style. When used as common nouns, they might be written in lower-case: "Major General Montgomery was one of several major generals to be promoted at this time." In
4788-437: The rank of air vice-marshal on 1 August 1919. Despite the short duration, the significance of the RAF to modern warfare was indicated by the number of senior officers who did hold the rank of major-general in the RAF: Chitral Chitral ( Khowar : ݯھیترار , romanized: ćhitrār , lit. 'field') is a city situated on the Chitral River in northern area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa . It serves as
4864-422: The rank of major general: in April 2019, James Morris was appointed as commander of the Standing Joint Force , with the rank of major general. As in the British Army, a Royal Marines major general ranks below a lieutenant general and above a brigadier. From its foundation on 1 April 1918 to 31 July 1919, the Royal Air Force (RAF) briefly used the rank of major-general. The service was a wartime amalgamation of
4940-401: The rank was downgraded to lieutenant general, and it was further reduced to of major general in 1996. On 30 April 2021, Lieutenant General Robert Magowan assumed the office of CGRM; he was succeeded on 25 November 2022 by Gwyn Jenkins , who already held the rank of full general from his appointment as Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff . Royal Marines in tri-service roles may still hold
5016-405: The reputation of being something of a whiner and someone who never stayed in a regiment for very long. After the First World War began, the Germans tried very hard to stir up a revolt in India. In November 1914, the Ottoman Empire entered the war, and the Sultan-Caliph issued a declaration of jihad urging upon Muslims everywhere to fight against Britain, France and Russia. In this context, the Raj
5092-414: The very hot summers. Precipitation occurs mainly from spring thunderstorms brought about by western frontal systems. In the winter the nighttime temperature occasionally drops to −10 °C. Winter snowfall in the town can be quite heavy with an accumulation of up to 60 cm being quite common, at higher elevations snowfall can reach as high as 20 metres (70 ft) . Urdu is the official language of
5168-418: Was a case where England, France and Belgium must fight together for existence. He said, "we do not want to conquer: we want to live and it is time everyone understood this". Townshend's habit of ceaselessly lobbying his superiors for promotion and his frequent transfers from various units as he sought to climb the career ladder tried the patience of many, and ironically actually hindered his career, as he earned
5244-431: Was a friend of Quaid E Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah , acceded to Pakistan and thus Chitral became one of the princely states of Pakistan . Through 1969 to 1972, it was fully integrated into Pakistan as the administrative district of Chitral. Chitral played an instrumental role in the 1947–1948 first Kashmir war . Immediately after acceding to Pakistan, Mehtar Muzaffar ul-Mulk proclaimed Jihad to 'liberate' Kashmir from
5320-418: Was appointed on probation to the Indian Staff Corps and was permanently appointed on 15 January 1886. He went on to serve on the Hunza Naga expedition in 1891. In 1894, while commanding the newly built fort at Gupis, he entertained the visiting George Curzon , "through a long evening with French songs to the accompaniment of a banjo." At Fort Gupis, the Francophile Townshend decorated the interior walls of
5396-415: Was attached to the British Egyptian army and, as commanding officer of the 12th Sudanese Battalion, he fought in the Sudan at the Battles of Atbara and Omdurman in 1898, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order . In January 1896, he received a letter from Herbert Kitchener , who wrote that he wanted him to serve under his command in Egypt, which served as a measure of Townshend's fame that
5472-510: Was constantly writing letters to friends, relatives and anyone who might be able to help him achieve promotion, saying that he desperately needed one and asking them to "pull some strings" to help him. Townshend's biographer, the British historian A. J. Barker noted, "Anybody who could further his career was invariably called up to help, often in the most pleading of terms". He served in the Sudan Expedition of 1884, then on 12 December 1885 he
5548-687: Was greatly concerned about the prospect of a mutiny by the Indian soldiers and that the tribes on the North-West Frontier might all rise up. Townshend was a man who had proven he could command Indians successfully and who knew the North-West Frontier well. For these two reasons, he was being kept in India in case of trouble, much to his own fury as he desperately wanted to go join the British Expeditionary Force in France. Townshend asked to be given
5624-400: Was promptly reported to the Ottoman commanders at Amarah. Amarah was taken on 3 June 1915, largely by bluff, with 2,000 Ottoman soldiers captured as prisoners of war. After taking Amarah, Townshend issued a press release-which completely ignored the role of his Indian soldiers, claiming that a mere 25 British soldiers and sailors commanded by himself had taken Amarah. At Amarah, he took as one of
5700-458: Was relieved after six weeks, and the British installed the young Shuja ul-Mulk as Mehtar ("ruler"). He ruled for the next 41 years. In 1947, following the division of the British colony of India, princely states were offered the choice to either remain independent or to choose one of the two new dominions. Initially, Chitral chose to remain an independent Monarchy. Later, the Mehtar of Chitral, who
5776-442: Was well aware of these problems, but apparently never discussed them with Nixon. Despite his constant complaining, Townshend never suggested that the advance up the Tigris be cancelled and Force D remain on the defensive. He conceived the idea of the "Regatta up the Tigris" by using some 328 local boats known as bellums to stealthily advance his men across the marshes at night to outflank the Ottoman positions. The opening phase of
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