Major-General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

Arthur Edward "Bustling Bill" Barstow, (17 March 1888 – 28 January 1942) was a

British Indian Army The British Indian Army, commonly referred to as the Indian Army, was the main military of the British Raj before its dissolution in 1947. It was responsible for the defence of the British Indian Empire, including the princely states, which co ...

officer who commanded the 9th Indian Division during the

Battle of Malaya The Malayan campaign, referred to by Japanese sources as the , was a military campaign fought by Allied and Axis forces in Malaya, from 8 December 1941 – 15 February 1942 during the Second World War. It was dominated by land battles betwee ...

. He was killed by the Japanese on active service in 1942 while trying to cross a demolished railway bridge near Layang Layang village.

Early life and family

Barstow was the son of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Adam Anderson Barstow, an officer in the 72nd Seaforth Highlanders, and Jane Cape Barstow. The Barstows were an Army family since the eighteenth century; his father Thomas fought in the

Second Afghan War The Second Anglo-Afghan War (Dari: جنگ دوم افغان و انگلیس, ps, د افغان-انګرېز دويمه جګړه) was a military conflict fought between the British Raj and the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1878 to 1880, when the ...

. Arthur was born in Edinburgh and educated at

Bradfield College Bradfield College, formally St Andrew's College, Bradfield, is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) for pupils aged 11–18, located in the small village of Bradfield in the English county of Berkshire. It is note ...

, before attending the

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infantry a ...

. He was the brother of Brigadier

John Anderson Barstow Acting Brigadier John Anderson Barstow MC (2 May 1893 – 3 January 1941) was a British Army officer, the brother of Major-General Arthur Edward Barstow and son of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Adam Anderson Barstow of the Seaforth Highlande ...

, who was killed in 1941, Lieutenant Edmund Leonard Barstow, killed fighting in Kūt in early 1917 whilst on attachment to the 36th Sikhs and Primrose Cheshire, mother of Group Captain Leonard Cheshire V.C.the famous Second World War Bomber pilot. He married Nancy Lewkenor Knight, daughter of Brigadier General Henry Lewkenor Knight and Sybil Madeline, on 27 July 1927 in Alton. The generosity of his widow, Nancy had a part to play in the establishment of disability charity

Leonard Cheshire Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire, Baron Cheshire, (7 September 1917 – 31 July 1992) was a highly decorated Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot and group captain during the Second World War, and a philanthropist. Among the honours Cheshire received as ...

Military career

On 25 January 1908 he was commissioned into the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

on the Unattached List, before receiving a commission in the Indian Army on 11 March 1909. Between 1910 and 1919 Barstow served with the

15th Ludhiana Sikhs The 15th Ludhiana Sikhs was an infantry regiment in the British Indian Army. They could trace their origins to 1846, when they were known as the Regiment of Ludhiana (or the Loodiana Regiment). During the Indian Mutiny they were relied upon to h ...

, including on the Western Front during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He was awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

, wounded and

mentioned in dispatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

over the course of the conflict. He subsequently served in the 1920 Iraqi revolt and in India, after attending the

Staff College, Camberley Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, was a staff college for the British Army and the presidency armies of British India (later merged to form the Indian Army). It had its origins in the Royal Military College, High Wycombe, founded in 1799, which i ...

from 1924 to 1925, and was Commanding Officer (CO) of the 2nd Battalion, 11th Sikh Regiment between 1933 and 1935. At the start of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Barstow was Commander of Waziristan District, and was invested as a

Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria on 1 January 1878. The Order includes members of three classes: #Knight Grand Commander (GCIE) #Knight Commander ( KCIE) #Companion ( CIE) No appoi ...

in recognition of his service. In September 1940 he became General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 9th Indian Division and served with the division during the early months of the Battle of Malaya. He was killed by the

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

on 28 January 1942 while trying to cross a demolished railway bridge near Layang Layang village. At the time he was attempting to contact one of his brigades, the 22nd Indian Brigade, which had become cut off from the rest of the retreating British forces. The Japanese recovered his body. The 22nd Indian Brigade was nearly completely destroyed by the Japanese. The 9th Indian Division, after suffering many more casualties, was later absorbed by the 11th Indian Division and the 8th Australian Division, both of which later surrendered at

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

Publications

Barstow's ''The Sikhs: An Ethnology'' was published in 1928.

References

External links

*
British Indian Army officers

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Barstow, Arthur Edward 1888 births 1942 deaths Indian Army generals of World War II Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire Military history of Malaysia Military of Singapore under British rule Recipients of the Military Cross Indian Army personnel killed in World War II Military personnel from Edinburgh People educated at Bradfield College British military personnel of the Iraqi revolt of 1920 Indian Army personnel of World War I Graduates of the Staff College, Camberley Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst 20th-century British writers