Frederick Marshman Bailey

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Frederick Marshman Bailey
Bailey in 1934
Born3 February 1882
Lahore, British India
Died17 April 1967 (aged 85)
Stiffkey, Norfolk, England
NationalityBritish
Alma materRoyal Military College, Sandhurst
OccupationsBritish Army officer, explorer, spy, botanist and zoologist
AwardsOrder of the Indian Empire
Fellow of Royal Geographical Society
MacGregor Medal
Signature
Not to be confused with Frederick Manson Bailey.

Frederick Marshman Bailey

butterfly collecting, and trophy hunting in the high Tibetan region. Over 2000 of his bird specimens were presented to the Natural History Museum,[2] although his personal collection is now held in the American Museum of Natural History, New York.[3] His papers and extensive photograph collections are held in the British Library, London.[4]

Early life

Drummond Place, Edinburgh

Born in Lahore, India on 3 February 1882, Bailey was the son of Lt Col Frederick Bailey of the Royal Engineers of the British Army, Head of the Indian Forestry Service, and his wife, Florence Agnes Marshman.[5] The younger Bailey was usually called "Eric".[6] His family returned to Britain in 1890 and they lived at 7 Drummond Place in Edinburgh's Second New Town. He was educated nearby at Edinburgh Academy.

He later studied at

Tibetan and became so proficient that he accompanied Francis Younghusband in his 1904 invasion of Tibet. He then served as the British Trade Agent in Gyantse
(Tibet) at intervals between December 1905 and December 1909.

Explorer

Map of the 1913 expedition to Tibet
Himalayan Blue Poppy (Meconopsis betonicifolia) (syn. Meconopsis baileyi)

He later travelled in unknown parts of

Patron's Medal from the Royal Geographical Society for his discoveries. He also contributed notes on big game to the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society
. He was promoted Captain 28 July 1908 and served during the operations in the Abor Country from 1911 to 1912.

Bailey transferred himself from the Indian Army to the Political Department to get appointments on the Tibetan frontier. In 1911, he crossed China and southern Tibet to Assam in a failed attempt to reach the 150 ft falls on the

Meconopsis baileyi
. They reached Kintup's Falls at the monastery of Pemakochung and were greatly disappointed to find the falls to be about 30 ft.

In 1914, Bailey was honoured with the

Dihang & Dibang valleys,1911- 12."[8]

First World War

On 4 September 1914 Bailey was appointed as a captain with the 6th Reserve Regiment of Cavalry at Dublin. He served on the

Battle of Gallipoli
in September 1915. He served with the 5th Gurkhas, and he was wounded twice more.

He was appointed a

Companion of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire on 1 January 1915[9]
and was transferred to the Supernumerary List on 24 December 1915.

He was sent back to India, where he served as

Political Officer
on the North-West Frontier during the Mohmand Operations January 1916 to March 1917.

In December 1917, he was sent to South Persia, where he served until February 1918 as a political officer and was then in Chinese and Russian Turkistan from 1918 to 1920.

He was a temporary lieutenant-colonel from 1 April 1918 to 30 May 1920.

Mission to Tashkent

One of Bailey's more well-known adventures occurred in 1918, when he travelled to

Bolshevik government, specifically in relation to India. During the mission, he also shadowed Raja Mahendra Pratap, an Indian nationalist who had established the Provisional Government of India in Kabul in 1915. Pratap was liaising with Germany and Bolshevik authorities for a joint Soviet-German assault into India through Afghanistan.[10] It was then that the first plans for the Soviet Kalmyk Project was first considered. Bailey eventually had to flee for his life from the city and escaped only by taking on the guise of an Austrian prisoner-of-war[11] and joining the Cheka
with an assignment to find a rogue British agent, himself. Upon his return to England, he was a national hero. Bailey later recorded his exploits in his book Mission to Tashkent.

Later life

Miru Gyalwa, Mrs Bailey, Major Vance, Colonel Bailey, 1927 in Tibet
In the Mishmi Hills

In 1921 Bailey married Hon. Irma, daughter of Baron Cozens-Hardy.

He was the Political Officer for Sikkim and Tibet, stationed in Gangtok (Sikkim) from June 1921 to October 1928, and he made annual visits to Tibet to inspect the Gyantse Trade Agency and visited Lhasa from 16 July to 16 August 1924, accompanied by the Medical Officer, Major J. Hislop IMS.

He helped

Political Officer
in Gangtok, Sikkim. Bailey arranged passports and encouraged them to search the 40 mi unexplored gap of the river to solve the riddles of the Tsangpo Gorges. Kingdon-Ward wrote a book by the same name documenting that expedition.

He was among the earliest to import the Lhasa Apso breed of dog into Britain.[12] He was in contact with others interested in Central Asia, including Richard Meinertzhagen.

He was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel 28 July 1926.

He was the Resident at Baroda, Central India from 1930 to 32 and was the Resident in Kashmir in 1932 to 1933.

In February 1935, he was appointed His Majesty's

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at Kathmandu.[13]
He held this appointment until retiring in 1938.

He retired from the Indian Army on 3 February 1937 and, during the Second World War, served as a King's Messenger to Central and South America between 1942 and 1943.

Bailey died on April 17, 1967.

Works

  • Bailey, F. M. "From the outposts: A quiet day in Tibet", in: Blackwood's Magazine, 181;1144:270-5
  • Bailey, F. M. (1914). "Exploration on the Tsangpo or upper Brahmaputra". Scottish Geographical Magazine. 30 (11): 561–582.
    doi:10.1080/00369221408734154
    .
  • Bailey, F. M. China-Tibet-Assam: A Journey, 1911 (London: Cape, 1945)
  • Bailey, F. M. (1946). Mission to Tashkent. London: J. Cape.
    OCLC 988861242. Republished by Oxford University Press in 1992 and 2002 with Peter Hopkirk as editor.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link
    )
  • Bailey, F. M. No Passport to Tibet (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1957)

Legacy

Bailey is commemorated in the scientific names of three species: a Tibetan snake (

Meconopsis baileyi).[16]

See also

  • London Gazette
  • Indian Army List (various dates)
  • Wellington College Register
  • The Times

References

  1. ^ Anon, Obituary: Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Marshman Bailey, C.I.E., Journal of The Royal Central Asian Society, Volume 54, 1967, Issue 2, pp. 223-225. Retrieved 9 November 201.
  2. ^ Warr, F. E. 1996. Manuscripts and Drawings in the ornithology and Rothschild libraries of The Natural History Museum at Tring. BOC. (BMNH 1938 7-15)
  3. ^ a b c Anon. (1967) Obituary: Lt.-Col. F. M. Bailey, C. I. E. 1882-1967. The Geographical Journal 133: 427-428.
  4. ^ Papers at Mss Eur F157, photographs at Photo 1083.
  5. ^ Loneliness and Time: The Story of British Travel Writing, by Mark Cocker
  6. ^ ODNB: Frederick Marshman Bailey
  7. ^ Bailey, F.M. 1911
  8. ISSN 0041-770X
    – via archive.org.
  9. ^ "No. 29024". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 1915. p. 3.
  10. ^ Bailey 1946, pp. 224–227
  11. ^ Bailey, F. M., "A Visit to Bokhara in 1919", The Geographical Journal > Vol. 57, No. 2 (Feb., 1921), pp. 75–87.
  12. ^ Bailey, Eric (1937) Dogs from the Roof of the World : Many unusual Breeds Found in Tibet the Strange Land That Lies in the Clouds. American Kennel Gazette 25(3) "The AMERICAN KENNEL GAZETTE". Archived from the original on 8 November 2006. Retrieved 12 December 2006.
  13. ^ "No. 34133". The London Gazette. 15 February 1935. p. 1091.
  14. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5
    . ("Bailey, F. M.", p. 14).
  15. ^ Pocock R. I. (1914) Description of a new species of goral (Naemorhedus) shot by Captain F. M. Bailey.
  16. ^ "Meconopsis baileyi – Himalayan Blue Poppy". 14 June 2012.

Further reading

External links

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