The Burma Frontier Force was a paramilitary police force in
British Burma
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
. It was created in 1937 by the Burma Frontier Force Act (Burma Act I of 1937), when Burma was detached from
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
. It was formed from battalions of the
Burma Military Police
The Burma Military Police (BMP) was a paramilitary force of British Burma. Its main functions were the pacification of Upper Burma and the policing of the Burmese frontier. The force was made up of Indian and Burmese recruits.
Dating back to 1886 ...
. The Force was led by an Inspector-General, Frontier Force, appointed by the
Governor of Burma
The colonial governors of Burma were the colonial administrators responsible for the territory of British Burma, an area equivalent to modern-day Myanmar.
As a result of the Second Anglo-Burmese War, Burma was initially setup as a province o ...
.
After the fall of Burma, legislation was passed to make Force part of the Burmese Army and subject to the Burma Army Act.
In 1942, a mounted column of the Burma Frontier Force, under the command of Captain Arthur Sandeman (seconded from the
Central India Horse) led a
mounted infantry
Mounted infantry were infantry who rode horses instead of marching. The original dragoons were essentially mounted infantry. According to the 1911 ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', "Mounted rifles are half cavalry, mounted infantry merely specially m ...
column. Near
Toungoo airfield in central
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
the 60-man mounted patrol mistook Japanese troops for Chinese ones and closed with them before realizing their mistake. Most of the patrol (including Sandeman) were killed in what was probably the last
cavalry charge by a force under the command of the British crown.
[{{citation , title=F.F.3, Burma Frontier Force , url=http://www.rothwell.force9.co.uk/burmaweb/FF3.htm]
References
1937 establishments in Burma
British Burma