Lieutenant-Colonel Aubrey John "A.J." O'Brien (5 December 1870 – 31 August 1930) was an officer in the

British Indian Army The Indian Army was the force of British Raj, British India, until Indian Independence Act 1947, national independence in 1947. Formed in 1895 by uniting the three Presidency armies, it was responsible for the defence of both British India and ...

and a writer on India.''Who Was Who 1929-1940'' (published 1941)

Education

O'Brien's father was Edward O'Brien of the

Bengal Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 300 million p ...

. Aubrey O'Brien was educated at

Dover College Dover College is an independent day and boarding school in the English public school tradition located in Dover in south east England. It was founded in 1871, and takes both day pupils and boarders from the UK and internationally. The schoo ...

and at Sandhurst.

Military career

He served three and a half years in the

Loyal North Lancashire Regiment The Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire) (until 1921 known as the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that was in existence from 1881 to 1970. In 1970, the regiment was amalgamated with the Lancashire Re ...

, and one and a half years in the 110th

Maratha Light Infantry The Maratha Light Infantry is a light infantry regiment of the Indian Army. It traces its lineage to the Bombay Sepoys, raised in 1768, making it the most senior light infantry regiment in the Indian Army. Recruitment The class composition o ...

before spending 29 years in the

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

Commission.

Judicial career

He also remained the district judge as a Lieutenant at

Bannu Bannu (, ), also called Bani Gul or Bani (, ) is a city located on the Kurram River in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is the capital of Bannu Division. Bannu's residents are primarily members of the Banuchi tribe and speak Banuch ...

(then part of British India, now in Pakistan). On 9 November 1901 he was promoted to the rank of captain and appointed as the 1st

Deputy Commissioner A deputy commissioner is a police, income tax or administrative official in many countries. The rank is commonplace in police forces of Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries, usually ranking below the Commissioner. Australia In all Aust ...

of the newly formed

Mianwali District The Mianwali District () is a Districts of Pakistan, district located in the Sargodha Division of the Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab province of Pakistan. Mianwali District remained part of Rawalpindi Division until 1963, when Mianwali District beca ...

(then part of British India, now in Pakistan). He served Mianwali not once but three times, the second time in 1906 and the third time in 1914. However he was promoted to the rank of major during his third tenure at Mianwali.

Awards and honours

O'Brien was made CIE in 1906 and

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in 1919.

Death

He died in

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

, aged 59, from undisclosed causes and Obituary, ''The Times'', 2 September 1930 was interred at

Brompton Cemetery Brompton Cemetery (originally the West of London and Westminster Cemetery) is since 1852 the first (and only) London cemetery to be Crown Estate, Crown property, managed by The Royal Parks, in West Brompton in the Royal Borough of Kensington a ...

, London.

Selected works

*''Female infanticide in the Punjab'', Folklore 19:3 (1908), pp. 261–75 *''Mianwali Folklore Notes'', Folklore 22:1 (1911), pp. 73–77 *''The Mohammedan Saints of the Western Punjab'', ''The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland'' 41 (1911), pp. 509–520 (with Reginald Bolster) *''Cupid and Cartridges (Sketches of Sport in the Punjab)'', 1911 (with Reginald Bolster) *''Bahawalpur: Transformation of an Indian State'', ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', 4 November 1926

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Obrien, Aubrey J. 1870 births 1930 deaths British Indian Army officers British non-fiction writers Burials at Brompton Cemetery Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire Loyal Regiment officers Mianwali District Military personnel from London People from Kensington British male writers British male non-fiction writers Writers from British India British people in colonial India 19th-century British Army personnel