Reginald Dyer: Difference between revisions

[[Colonel (United Kingdom)|Colonel]] '''Reginald Edward Harry Dyer''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|CB}} (9 October 1864{{snd}}23 July 1927) was an officer of the [[Bengal Army]] and later the newly constituted [[British Indian Army]]. His military career began in the regular British Army but he soon transferred to the Presidencypresidency armies of India.

As a temporary [[Brigadier (India)|brigadier-general]],<ref name="temp-bg" /> he was responsible for the [[Jallianwala Bagh massacre]] that took place on 13 April 1919 in [[Amritsar]] (in the province of [[Punjab (British India)|Punjab]]). He has been called "the Butcher of Amritsar",{{sfn|Collett|2006}} because of his order to fire on a large gathering of people. The official report stated that this resulted in the killing of at least 379 people and the injuring of over a thousand more.<ref>[[Ferdinand Mount]], [https://www.lrb.co.uk/v41/n07/ferdinand-mount/they-would-have-laughed "They would have laughed"], in ''London Review of Books'' dated 4 April 2019, Vol. 41, No.7, pp. 9–12</ref> Some submissions to the official inquiry suggested a higher number of deaths.{{sfn|Collett|2006|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=XuQC5pgzCw4C&pg=PA263 263]}}

Dyer was born in [[Murree]], in the [[Punjab Province (British India)|Punjab province]] of [[British Raj|British India]], which is now in [[Pakistan]] on 9 October 1864. He was the son of Edward Dyer, a brewer who managed the [[Murree Brewery]], and Mary Passmore.{{sfn|Collett|2006|p=3}}<ref>Oxford History of the British Empire Companion Series Ireland and the British Empire Kenny, Kevin 2004 Oxford University Press page 90</ref> He spent his childhood in [[Murree]] and [[Shimla]] and received his early education at the [[Lawrence College Ghora Gali]], Murree and [[Bishop Cotton Boys’ School (BangaloreShimla)|Bishop Cotton Boys’ School]] in BangaloreShimla.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Chauhan |first=Pratibha |url=https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/archive/himachal/the-evil-cottonian-who-let-the-school-down-753414 |title=The 'Evil Cottonian' who let the school down|agency=Tribune News service |work=The Tribune |language=en|access-date=2 March 2020}}</ref> From eleven he attended [[Midleton College]] in [[County Cork]], Ireland,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imt.ie/news/amritsar-and-the-irish-connections-29-09-2009/|title=Amritsar and the Irish connections|date=29 September 2009|publisher=Irish Medical Times|access-date=13 April 2019}}</ref>{{sfn|Colvin|1929|p=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.208303/page/n23/mode/2up 9]}}<ref>{{Cite news|last=Chauhan |first=Pratibha |url=https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/archive/himachal/the-evil-cottonian-who-let-the-school-down-753414 |title=The 'Evil Cottonian' who let the school down|agency=Tribune News service |work=The Tribune |language=en|access-date=2 March 2020}}</ref> before briefly studying medicine, at the [[Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=News from the archives: a recent accession|url=https://www.nationalarchives.ie/article/news-archives-recent-accession/|access-date=6 June 2020|website=The National Archives of Ireland|language=en-US}}</ref> Dyer then decided to pursue a military career, and enrolled at the [[Royal Military College, Sandhurst|Royal Military College of Sandhurst]], from where he graduated in 1885. He was also fluent in a number of Indian languages as well as [[Persian language|Persian]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=III |first=H. W. Crocker |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T4_mAgAAQBAJ |title=The Politically Incorrect Guide to the British Empire |date=2011-10-24 |publisher=Regnery Publishing |isbn=978-1-59698-629-9 |language=en}}</ref>

In August 1903, Dyer was promoted to [[Major (United Kingdom)|major]], and served with the [[Landi Kotal]] Expedition (1908). He commanded the 25th Punjabis in India and Hong Kong and was promoted to [[Lieutenant-Colonel (United Kingdom)|lieutenant-colonel]] in 1910.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28362|page=3072|date=3 May 1910}}</ref> During the [[First World War]] (1914–18), he commanded the [[Seistan Force]], for which he was [[mentioned in dispatches]]<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=30360 |supp=y|page=11270|date=30 October 1917}}</ref> and made a [[Companion of the Order of the Bath]] (CB). He was promoted [[Colonel (United Kingdom)|colonel]] in 1915,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=29924 |supp=y|page=1058|date=30 January 1917}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=31787 |supp=y|page=2046|date=17 February 1920}}</ref> and was promoted to temporary [[Brigadier (India)|brigadier general]] in 1916.<ref name="temp-bg">{{London Gazette|issue=29509 |supp=y|page=2902|date=14 March 1916}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=30617 |supp=y|page=4273|date=5 April 1918}}</ref> In 1919, about a month after the Jallianwala Bagh massacrekilling, Dyer served in the [[Third Anglo-Afghan War]]. His brigade relieved the garrison of [[Thal Desert|Thal]], for which he was again mentioned in dispatches.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=31823 |supp=y|page=3278|date=12 March 1920}}</ref> For a few months in 1919 he was posted to the 5th Brigade at [[Jamrud]].{{sfn|Colvin|1929|p=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.208303/page/n253/mode/2up 231]}} He retired on 17 July 1920, retaining the rank of colonel.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=32047|page=9148|date=10 September 1920}}</ref>

In protest at this action, demonstrators headed for the residence of Miles Irving, the Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar. The deputy commissioner had given orders that protestors were not to be allowed to pass into the [[Civil Lines|civil lines]] (the civilian administrative area, effectively the "British area" of town). [[Picquet (military)|Army picket]]s fired on the crowd, killing at least eight protesters and wounding others. As a result, angry mobs formed, returning to Amritsar's city centre, setting fire to government buildings and attacking Europeans in the city. Three British bank employees were beaten to death, and Miss Marcella Sherwood, who supervised the Mission Day School for Girls, was cycling around the city to close her schools when she was assaulted by a mob in a narrow street called the Kucha Kurrichhan. Sherwood was rescued from the mob by (Indian) locals.<ref name=Chadha-1997/>{{RP|237–239}} They hid the teacher, who was injured in the beating, before moving her to the fort. Dyer, who was the commandant of the infantry brigade in [[Jalandhar]], was incensed that a European woman had been attacked and decided to take action. He arrived on 11 April to assume command.{{sfn|Colvin|1929|p=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.208303/page/n181/mode/2up 162]}}

The [[Jallianwala Bagh massacre#Hunter Commission|Hunter Commission]] report on the incident, published the following year by the Government of India, criticised both Dyer, and the Government of the Punjab for failing to compile a casualty count, so quoted a figure offered by the Sewa Samati (A Social Services Society) of 379 identified dead, comprising 337 men, 41 boys and a six-week-old baby,{{sfn|Collett|2006|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=XuQC5pgzCw4C&pg=PA263 263]}} with approximately 1,100 wounded, of which 192 were seriously injured.<ref name="HumterMins">{{cite web |title=Amritsar: Minutes of Evidence taken before the Hunter Committee |url=https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/legislativescrutiny/parliament-and-empire/collections1/collections2/amritsar-hunter-commission/amritsar-hunter-commission/ |website=Parliament.UK |access-date=12 April 2019}}</ref> However other estimates,<ref name=HP23>[http://www.abhilekh-patal.in/jspui/handle/123456789/2719279?searchWord=&backquery=%5Blocation=&query=&filter_field_1=subjectCollection&filter_type_1=equals&filter_value_1=Home+Political&filter_field_2=department&filter_type_2=equals&filter_value_2=Home+Political%3A%3ADeposit&rpp=20&sort_by=dc.date.accessioned_dt&order=asc%5D Home Political, 23 Sept 1921, No 23, National Archive of India, New Delhi]</ref> from government civil servants in the city (commissioned by the Punjab Sub-committee of Indian National Congress),<ref>Report of Commissioners, appointed by the Punjab Sub-committee of Indian National Congress, Vol I, New Delhi, p 68</ref> as well as counts from the Home Political,<ref name=HP23/> cite numbers of well over a thousand dead. According to a Home Political Deposit report, the number was more than 1,000, with more than 1,200 wounded.<ref name=HP23 /> Dr Smith, a British [[civil surgeon#British use|civil surgeon]] at Amritsar, estimated that there were over 1,800 casualties.<ref>Report of Commissioners, Vol I, New Delhi, p 105</ref> The deliberate infliction of these casualties earned Dyer the epithet of the "Butcher of Amritsar".{{snfsfn|Collett|2006}}

The day after the massacre Dyer continued along confrontational lines, even though the city was quiet. He met with a delegation of Amritsar citizens to whom he directed the following speech, without having received their petitions or heard from them. Made to the delegation in [[Urdu]], the English translation of a segment of Dyer's statement is shown below, as given in Collett's ''The Butcher of Amritsar'':{{snfsfn|Collett|2006|p=270}}

Dyer devised what even one of his generally supportive superiors, O'Dwyer, described as an "irregular and improper" retaliation for the attack on Marcella Sherwood, designed, it seemed, to fall indiscriminately and humiliatingly on the local population. On the street where the assault occurred, Kucha Kurrichhan, Dyer ordered daytime pickets placed at either end. Anyone wishing to proceed into the street between 6&nbsp;am and 8&nbsp;pm was made to crawl the {{convert|200|yd}} on all fours, lying flat on their bellies.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kent|first=Susan Kingsley|title=Aftershocks: politics and trauma in Britain, 1918–1931|year=2009|publisher=University of California|isbn=978-1-4039-9333-5|pages=37|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t7eypXVnabIC&pg=PT49}}</ref> When questioned at the Hunter inquiry about this, Dyer explained his motivation:<ref>{{multiref2|1={{cite book|last=Talbott|first=Strobe |title=Engaging India: Diplomacy, Democracy, and the Bomb |publisher=Brookings Institution Press|isbn=978-0-8157-8300-8| page=[https://archive.org/details/engagingindiadip00talb/page/245 245]|url=https://archive.org/details/engagingindiadip00talb |url-access=registration |date=2004}}|2={{cite news |last1=Kumar |first1=Mayank |title=The Crawling Order: A sign of imperial British atrocities |url=https://sundayguardianlive.com/news/crawling-order-sign-imperial-british-atrocities |work=The Sunday Guardian |date=16 April 2022}} }}</ref>{{bqblockquote|Some Indians crawl face downwards in front of their gods. I wanted them to know that a British woman is as sacred as a Hindu god and therefore, they have to crawl in front of her too.}} There was a curfew in effect from 8&nbsp;pm, so the order effectively closed the street for the full 24 hours. The houses and shops had no back doors, so the inhabitants could not go out without climbing down from their roofs. No deliveries or services were available to those effectively locked in, so no food or other supplies could be replenished, any sick or injured had no medical attendance, and normal rubbish and latrine sanitary services were absent. The trapped inhabitants included some of the individuals responsible for rescuing and attending to Sherwood, the assault victim. This order was in effect from 19 April until 25, or possibly, 26 April 1919. In addition, Dyer had flogging triangles erected in the street; on these, youths arrested for the assault, some of whom were not subsequently convicted, were publicly flogged in view of the residents.{{sfn|Colvin|1929|p=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.208303/page/n217/mode/2up 197]}}{{snfsfn|Collett|2006|pp=282–284}}

Having been born in India and educated in Ireland, Dyer then settled in Britain. He was presented with a gift of £26,000 sterling, a huge sum in those days, ({{Inflation|UK|26000|1920|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}), which emerged from the fund raised on his behalf by the ''Morning Post'', a conservative, pro-imperialist newspaper which later merged with the ''[[Daily Telegraph]]''. A "Thirteen Women Committee" was constituted to present "the Saviour of the Punjab with the sword of honour and a purse". Large contributions to the fund were made by civil servants and by British Army and Indian Army officers, although serving members of the military were not allowed to donate to political funds under the King's Regulations (para. 443).{{sfn|Collett|2006|p=390}}