Charles Pawsey

This article is about the colonial administrator. For the rugby league footballer, see Charles Pawsey (rugby league).

Sir Charles Ridley Pawsey, CSI, CIE, MC* (1894–1972) was a British colonial administrator.

Biography

Pawsey was born on 14 July 1894. He was educated at Berkhamsted School and Wadham College, Oxford where he graduated with a BA.[1] He was commissioned into the Worcestershire Regiment[2] in 1914 and won the Military Cross as a Second Lieutenant (temporary Lieutenant) in 1916[3] and bar as a Second Lieutenant (temporary Captain) the next year.[4] He was promoted Captain in 1917 and relinquished his Territorial Army commission on 30 September 1921.[5]

Pawsey joined the Indian Civil Service (ICS) in 1919.[1] He was appointed Assistant Commissioner in Assam in 1919, becoming Director of Land Records in 1932. He was made a Deputy Commissioner in 1935 and was District Commissioner (D.C.), Naga Hills during the Burma campaigns of 1942 to 1944.[6] Pawsey's bungalow and tennis court were the place where the British Fourteenth Army finally turned the tide of the war against the Japanese during the Burma Campaign of World War II at the Battle of Kohima. The part of this battle centred on his bungalow was known as the Battle of the Tennis Court. Showing great bravery and loyalty to the local Naga people, Pawsey refused to leave Kohima during the siege by the Japanese that lasted from 5 April to 20 April 1944, and did what he could to bolster morale and support Colonel Richards the Garrison Commander.[7][8] The Nagas remained completely loyal to him and by way of thanks their tribal leaders were introduced to Lord Mountbatten at Kohima in August 1944.[9]

Prior to his return to Britain following India's independence, Pawsey wrote in the Naga Nation, underlining that autonomy within the Indian Union was the more prudent course to follow. For, "Independence will mean: tribal warfare, no hospitals, no schools, no salt, no trade with the plains and general unhappiness".[10] He was knighted on 14 August 1947,[11][lower-alpha 1] and he retired 1948. In his later years he lived at The Priory, Badingham, Woodbridge, Suffolk until his death on 21 July 1972.[1]

Family

In 1954, when he was about 60 years old, Sir Charles married Rita, the widow of Hugh Ingle Halliday.[1][2]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The sources differ Who's Who state he was knighted in 1947, Kelly's 1948 (Anonymous 1981, p. 612; Kelly's staff 1969, p. 1547).
  1. 1 2 3 4 Anonymous 1981, p. 612.
  2. 1 2 Kelly's staff 1969, p. 1547.
  3. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 29438. p. 589. 11 January 1916. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
  4. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 30135. p. 5983. 15 June 1917. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
  5. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 32537. p. 348. 10 January 1922. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  6. ↑ CSAS staff 2013.
  7. ↑ Lyman 2010, p. 57.
  8. ↑ Brown 2013, p. 8.
  9. ↑ Lyman 2010, p. 91.
  10. ↑ Guha 2007, pp. 269–278.
  11. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 38161. p. 3. 30 December 1947. Retrieved 22 September 2016.

References

External links

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