Sir Charles Augustus Tegart KCIE KPM (1881 – 6 April 1946), the second son of Rev. Joseph Poulter Tegart, was a colonial police officer in India and Mandatory Palestine, variously earning praise for his industry and efficiency, and notoriety for his brutality and use of torture.
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Tegart was the son of a Church of Ireland clergyman, Rev. J.P. Tegart of Dunboyne, County Meath. He was educated at Portora Royal School, Enniskillen and Trinity College, Dublin.
He joined the Calcutta Police in 1901, becoming head of its Detective Department. He served almost continuously in Calcutta for a period of thirty years until he was appointed a member of the Secretary of State's Indian Council in December 1931.
He was the first officer of the Indian Police (IP) in the organisation and on his report the Special Branch was created.
He reorganised the city police force and made it efficient. He was a highly decorated officer, awarded the King's Police Medal in 1911. He became Superintendent of Police in 1908, Deputy Commissioner in 1913, Deputy-Inspector General (Intelligence) in 1918, and Commissioner of Calcutta Police from 1923 to 1931.
He was admired for keeping the city free from crime. However, he earned notoriety amongst the Bengal opponents of British rule, especially from freedom fighters. In their eyes, he was an obdurate opponent of Indian nationalism to the point of illegality, and was known for the ruthless torture of prisoners.
Sir Charles Tegart was involved in a skirmish with Indian revolutionaries led by Jatindranath Mukherjee at Balasore in Orissa on 9 September 1915.
Several attempts were made to assassinate Tegart:
Tegart's efficiency in curbing the freedom-fighting activities of the Indians came in for praise from Lord Edward Robert Lytton, then Governor of Bengal. He was awarded the KCIE in 1937.
In view of his expertise, the British authorities sent him to the British Mandate of Palestine, then in the throes of the Arab Revolt, to advise the Inspector General on matters of security. He arrived there on 21 October 1938.
In due course he advised the construction of a large number of reinforced concrete police stations and posts which could be defended against attack, and of a frontier fence along the northern border of Palestine to control the movement of insurgents, goods and weapons. His recommendations were accepted and some 50 new "Tegart forts",[1] as they came to be known, were built throughout Palestine. Many of them are still in use, some by Israeli forces and others by Palestinian ones, while others were destroyed in various rounds of fighting.
Tegart also imported Doberman dogs from South Africa and established an interrogation centre in Jerusalem to train interrogators in torture. It is recorded that suspects underwent brutal questioning, involving humiliation and the Turkish practice of falaka (beating prisoners on the soles of their feet).
| Police appointments | ||
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| Preceded by Sir Reginald Clarke |
Police Commissioner of Calcutta 1923–1931 |
Succeeded by L. H. Colson |
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