Percy Sykes

Brigadier Sir Percy Sykes with officers of original Mission, Bandar Abbas, April 1916. (Standing) Major E Howell, Captain Durham, (Seated) Major G. Blair (Staff Officer) Brig General Sir Percy Sykes, Captain R.C. Ruck.

Brigadier-General Sir Percy Molesworth Sykes KCIE, CB, CMG (28 February 1867 – 11 June 1945) was a soldier, diplomat, scholar and historian,[1] with a considerable literary output. He wrote historical, geographical, and biographical works, as well as describing his travels in Persia.

History

Sykes was born in Brompton, Kent, England the only son of Rev. William Sykes and his wife Mary Molesworth, and educated at Rugby School and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.[2] He was commissioned into the 16th Lancers, but transferred to the 2nd Dragoon Guards in 1888. He was posted to India and made several journeys through Persia and Baluchistan. During the Second Boer War he served in the Intelligence Department[3] and was wounded in the leg.[4] He did a secret mission in the November of 1892 where he went to Uzbekistan the Trans-Caspian Railway.[2] The Royal Geographical Society awarded him the Back grant in 1899 and the Patron's Gold Medal in 1902.[5] In 1902 he transferred to the Indian Army. Over the next few years he made extensive journeys in the Middle East and was appointed consul-general for Khūzestān in 1906.

In 1915, Sykes was knighted.[4] While stationed in Persia he was given the temporary rank of Brigadier-General, he raised[4] and was placed in command of the South Persia Rifles.[6] His forces, consisting of some four hundred and fifty men, supported the Russians at Isfahan against Bakhtiaras[6] and restored some order to the country. Once stationed at Isfahan, Sykes used numerous excuses to remain, including a supposed Russian request that the South Persia rifles be used as a garrison for Isfahan.[6] By 1917, numerous British authorities were calling for his removal save Lord Curzon.[6] Despite this, Sykes was finally recalled in 1918.[6]

Sykes retired from the army in 1924, retaining the honorary rank of Brigadier-General. From 1932 until his death he was honorary secretary of the Royal Central Asian Society, now known as the Royal Society for Asian Affairs. The society has in its gift an award called The Sir Percy Sykes Memorial Medal.[7]

In 1902 he married Evelyn Seton, eldest daughter of Colonel Bruce Seton of the Royal Engineers and they had six children. His daughter Rachel married Sir Patrick Reilly the diplomat. Sykes was the nephew of Richard Sykes the rugby player who founded towns in America and cousin of Sir Alan Sykes, 1st Baronet MP for Knutsford, Cheshire.

Publications

Notes

  1. ↑ Shapur I, Shapur Shahbazi, Encyclopaedia Iranica, (20 July 2002).
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 "A History of Persia". World Digital Library. 1921. Retrieved 2013-10-01.
  3. ↑ Percy Molesworth Sykes, Y.M. Choueiri, A Global Encyclopedia of Historical Writing: A-J, ed. Daniel R. Woolf, (Routledge, 1998), 871.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Hugh Leach and Susan Marie Farrington, Strolling About on the Roof of the World: The First Hundred Years of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs, (Routledge, 2003), 185.
  5. ↑ "Royal Geographical Society" The Times (London). Saturday, 15 March 1902. (36716), p. 12.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Bureaucracies at War:The British in the Middle East in the First World War, John S. Galbraith and Robert A. Huttenback, National and International Politics in the Middle East: Essays in Honour of Elie Kedourie, ed. Edward Ingram, (Routledge, 2013), 117-119.
  7. ↑ "RSAA Awards". RSAA. Retrieved 3 June 2013.

References

External links