Sir Douglas Gordon - Memoirs of Life As a Police Officer In India: 1907 to 1946

MEMOIRS OF LIFE AS A
POLICE OFFICER IN INDIA

1907 to 1946

BY

SIR DOUGLAS GORDON

OF THE BENGAL POLICE

Copyright 2013, 2015 I. D. Gordon.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any meanswhether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronicwithout written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-1704-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-1705-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014915183

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CONTENTS

List Of Illustrations

Preface

Glossary

Chapter 1 - THE FORMATIVE YEARS

Chapter 2 - THE ORGANISATION OF THE POLICE

Chapter 3 - BAKARGANJ

Chapter 4 - MALDA AND SYLHET

Chapter 5 - THE LUSHAI HILLS

Chapter 6 - LUSHAI HILLS (CONTINUED)

Chapter 7 - THE GROWTH OF INDIAN NATIONALISM

Chapter 8 - ENGAGEMENT AND MARRIAGE

Chapter 9 - +MYMENSINGH

Chapter 10 - FARIDPUR

Chapter 11 - RECRUITING DUTY

Chapter 12 - HEADQUARTERS OFFICE

Chapter 13 - THE TRAINING COLLEGE

Chapter 14 - HEADQUARTERS AGAIN

Chapter 15 - THE CALCUTTA CITY POLICE

Chapter 16 - THE TRUNK MURDER CASE & POLITICAL ARRESTS

Chapter 17 - CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

Chapter 18 - TERRORISM IN BENGAL

Chapter 19 - DEPUTY INSPECTOR GENERAL

Chapter 20 - A MISCELLANY

Chapter 21 - MAINLY PERSONAL

APPENDIX 1 - Speech Given At A Dinner Of The Indian Police

APPENDIX 2 - Political Developments In India Over 75 Years

APPENDIX 3 - Criminal Investigation In India

APPENDIX 4 - An Estimate Of The Value Of The British Connection With India

APPENDIX 5 - Article From Bedford School Magazine. Dec 1906.

APPENDIX 6 - Article From Bedford School Magazine. Nov 1966.

APPENDIX 7 - Article From Dame Alice Harpur School Magazine, July 1967

APPENDIX 8 - The Bedfordshire And Hertfordshire Times, 23 Sep 1966

APPENDIX 9 - Entry In Whos Who.

APPENDIX 10 - Arms Of Sir Douglas Gordon.

APPENDIX 11 - Extract From Memoirs Of Madeleine Slade

APPENDIX 12 - Scrolls Presented To The Author While Inspector-General

Bibliography

About The Author

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Fig. 1. Authors Great Grandmother: Susannah Osborne (1753-1833).

Fig. 2. Authors Great Grandfather: Maj Gen Thomas Newton (1783-1842).

Fig. 3. Authors Grandfather: Charles Gordon (1814-1899)

Fig. 4. Authors Grandmother: Anne Catherine Newton (1821-1883)

Fig. 5. Authors Father: Alfred Ernest Gordon (1853-1929)

Fig. 6. Authors Mother: Ada Marion Fellows (1857-1926)

Fig. 7. Authors Parents in Bedford

Fig. 8 Authors Great Uncle: Osborne Gordon, BD. (1813-1883) by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery

Fig. 9. ADG c. 1890 (Photo by Naudin of 169 High St. Kensington, London)

Fig. 10. ADG c. 1905 (Photo by J. Thompson of Bedford)

Fig. 11. ADG c. 1910 Bengal

Fig. 12. ADG c. 1920

Fig. 13. ADG c. 1945

Fig. 14. ADG c. 1950

Fig. 15. ADG c. 1960

Fig. 16. ADG, High Sheriff at Bedford Assizes

Fig. 17. Decorations of Sir Douglas Gordon

Fig. 18. Writers Building

Fig. 19. Belvedere

Fig. 20. Howrah Bridge

Fig. 21. Police Sergeants Barracks & Messrooms

Fig. 22. 10/1 Rainey Park, Ballygunge, Calcutta. ADGs home c. 1936-1946

Fig. 23. Buttercups, Biddenham, Bedfordshire ADGs home from c. 1954-1966

Fig. 24. Traffic Sergeant

Fig. 25. European Inspector

Fig. 26. Sergeant Mechanic

Fig. 27. Patrol Sergeant

Fig. 28. Flying Patrol

Fig. 29. Flying Squad 1929

Fig. 30. Traffic Constable & Foot Constable

Fig. 31. Gazetted Officer (possibly ADG)

Fig. 32. Parade Inspecting Officer (possibly ADG on left)

Fig. 33. The Armed Police

Fig. 34. Mounted Police

Fig. 35. Quarter Guard - Gurkha

Fig. 36. The Traffic Sergeants

Fig. 37. The Armed Police, Mounted Police & Fire Brigade

Fig. 38. Aileene Marie Oliver & Archibald Douglas Gordon, 19 Nov 1912

Fig. 39. Authors sister: Marion Gordon (1889-1970) by E J Ball, St. Marys Studio, Bedford

Fig. 41. Donald, Alan & Helen Gordon by Edna Lorenz, Calcutta

Fig. 40. Authors brother: Charles Ernest Herbert Gordon (1885-1950)

Fig. 42. Alan, Ian, Gillian & Donald

Fig. 43. Inspector General A D Gordon CIE, KPM, JP

Fig. 44 & 45. Aileene Marie Gordon, nee Oliver (1882-1973)

Fig. 46. Helen MacInnes nee Gordon (1913-2005)

Fig. 47. Annie Oliver

Fig. 48 & 49. ADG, Helen Gordon, & Kenneth MacInnes, Shenley, 19 September 1934

Fig. 50. Donald Fellows Gordon, 2/7 Rajputs (1916-1986)

Fig. 51. Kenneth Lionel MacInnes CBE, JP, DL. (1905 - 1989)

Fig. 52. Alan St.John Gordon, MC. 2/7 Rajputs (1917-2002)

Fig. 53. Ian Bruce Gordon 1/7 Rajputs (1922-2006)122

PREFACE

(Archibald) Douglas, the second son of Alfred Ernest Gordon and his wife, Ada Marion (ne Fellows) was born on 14th April 1888 and was baptised at St. Mary Abbots, Kensington, London. According to the genealogist J M Bullock: The Gordons are said to have come out of Scotland early in the 18th century owing to involvement in the 1715 Rising. Coming, however, to solid facts it can only be said that the first documented member of the family was Alexander (1742-1823), the son of George Gordon (1715-1745) and his wife, Hannah Herbert (1721-1811), who was born in Wapping on 10 August 1742. He was the founder, in 1769, of the famous distillery of that name. His grandson, Charles (1814 - 1899), should have been a wealthy man but, according to his son Alfred, instead of attending to the Gin business, he constantly drew out capital for other foolish schemes and inventions, always unsuccessful, and the business eventually passed into other hands, leaving his sons and daughters to earn their livings as best they could.

This Charles, the grandfather of Douglas, had a great aunt who was Lady Nelson (ne Nisbet / Herbert), and an uncle, John Rolfe Gordon, who, as a Cornet in the 18th Hussars, fought at Waterloo and had two horses shot under him. He later retired to Montpellier and was a friend of the American publicist Pinckney Sumner. Charless cousin, Rev. Osborne Gordon BD, was involved in the pre-Raphaelite movement and was tutor to several illustrious men including John Ruskin and the future King Edward VII and a friend of the mathematician and author Lewis Carroll. Douglas Gordons grandmother, the wife of Charles, was a Newton, born in Barrackpore, Bengal and descended from an uncle, possibly John, of Sir Isaac. Her father, Major-General Thomas Newton of the Honourable East India Company Service, Bengal Establishment, served in the third Mahratta War and the first Burmese War and died in 1842 in Mussoorie, India. He lost in the Ganges all the papers of Lord Portsmouth sent by his brother George that supported his claim to, or attempt to buy, the farm cottage where Sir Isaac was born.