Dunsterville, far left, with staff of the Dunsterforce. Established in 1917 Dunsterforce was an Allied military mission of under 1000 Australian British Canadian and New Zealand elite troops (drawn from the Mesopotamian and

General Lionel Charles Dunsterville (1865–1946) was a British general, who led the so-called Dunsterforce across present-day Iran in an attempt to prevent an invasion of India by a combined Germano-Turkish force. Year 1865 ( MDCCCLXV) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Year 1946 ( MCMXLVI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Established in 1917 Dunsterforce was an Allied military mission of under 1000 Australian British Canadian and New Zealand elite troops (drawn from the Mesopotamian and

Biography

Lionel Charles Dunsterville went to college with Rudyard Kipling at The United Services College, an educational institution designed to prepare British young men for careers in Her Majesty's Army. Joseph Rudyard Kipling (30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936 was an English Author and poet United Services College was an English public school for the sons of Military officers located at Westward Ho! near Bideford in North Devon He served as the inspiration for the character "Stalky" in Kipling's novel Stalky & Co. Stalky & Co is a book published in 1899 by Rudyard Kipling, about adolescent boys at a British Boarding school. Stalky & Co is a book published in 1899 by Rudyard Kipling, about adolescent boys at a British Boarding school.

He was commissioned into the British Army infantry in 1884. Later he transferred to the colonial Indian Army and served on the North-West Frontier, in Waziristan and in China. See Indian Army for the post-independence (and post- partition) army of the Republic of India. The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP ( Urdu: śimāl maġribī sarhadī sūba) is the smallest of the four main provinces of Pakistan. Waziristan ( Pashto: وزیرستان "land of the Wazir " is a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan

In the First World War he was initially posted to India. At the end of 1917 he was appointed to lead an Allied force of under 1,000 Australian, British, Canadian and New Zealand elite troops, drawn from the Mesopotamian and Western Fronts, accompanied by armoured cars, from Hamadan some 350 km across Qajar Persia, trying to prevent a feared (though unlikely) invasion of India by Germany and Ottoman Turkey and to help in establishing an independent Trans-Caucasia. The Mesopotamian campaign was a campaign in the Middle Eastern theatre of the Great War fought between Allied Powers represented by the British Empire See Western Front (disambiguation for other meanings Western Front was a term used during the First and Second World Hamedān or Hamadān ( Persian: همدان, Old Persian: Hagmatana Hebrew: המזיין Ancient Greek: Ecbatana) Greater Iran (in Irān-e Bozorg, or fa ایران‌زمین Irān-zamīn; the Encyclopedia Iranica uses the term The "Dunsterforce" was turned back by 3,000 Russian revolutionary troops at Enzeli. Bandar-e Anzali ( known as Bandar-e Pahlavi ( before the Iranian Revolution, is a harbour town on the Caspian Sea, in the Iranian province

Dunsterville was now assigned to occupy the key oil port of Baku, held by the Centro Caspian Dictatorship. Baku (Bakı sometimes known as Baqy, Baky, Baki or Bakü, is the capital the largest city and the largest port of Azerbaijan The Centrocaspian Dictatorship (Диктатура Центрокаспия Diktatura Tsentrokaspiya) was a British -backed anti- Soviet government However, Baku had to be abandoned on 14 September 1918 in the face of an onslaught by 14,000 Turkish troops, who took the city the next day. Events 81 - Domitian becomes Emperor of the Roman Empire upon the death of his brother Titus. Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The Battle of Baku (Bakı döyüşü (Բաքվի ինքնապաշտպանություն Бакинское сражение also referred to as the Defense of Baku (Baku was regained by the Allies within two months as a result of the Turkish armistice. )

Promoted to major-general in 1918, Dunsterville died in 1946.

Source

• Encyclopaedia of the First World War- Who's Who

References

• S. P. Menefee, "Dunsterville, Lionel Charles," in H. C. G. Mathews and Brian Harrison (eds. ), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 17 (2004): pp. 361-63.

• The Adventures of Dunsterforce by Major-General L. C. Dunsterville (1920; Edward Arnold, London)

• Something of myself by Rudyard Kipling

• Stalky and Co. by Rudyard Kipling

External links

• The Diaries of General Lionel Dunsterville

• Dunsterforce: A Case Study of Coalition Warfare in the Middle East 1918-1919