Brigadier General Brigadier general or Brigade general is a military rank used in many countries. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries. The rank is usually above a colonel, and below a major general or divisional general. When appointed ...

George Edward Pereira, (26 January 1865 – 20 October 1923) was a

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 ...

officer, writer, diplomatist, and explorer in

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

and

Western China Western China (, or rarely ) is the west of China. In the definition of the Chinese government, Western China covers one municipality (Chongqing), six provinces (Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively r ...

Early life and family

George Pereira was descended from an old

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

family of

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

origins, which had profited in the 19th century from the Chinese trade, notably in

Macao Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

. He was eldest of the three sons of Edward Pereira by the Hon. Margaret Anne Stonor, eighth daughter of

Thomas Stonor, 3rd Baron Camoys Thomas Stonor, 3rd Baron Camoys (1797–1881) was a British peer, previously a member of Parliament. He was the son of another Thomas Stonor and Katherine Blundell, daughter of the art collector Henry Blundell. Career In 1817, he went to study ...

Stonor Park Stonor Park is a historic country house and private deer park situated in a valley in the Chiltern Hills at Stonor, about north of Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, England, close to the county boundary with Buckinghamshire. The house has a 12th ...

, Oxfordshire. He was educated at

The Oratory School The Oratory School () is an HMC Co-educational independent Roman Catholic day and boarding school for pupils aged 11–18 located in Woodcote, north-west of Reading. Founded in 1859 by Saint John Henry Newman, The Oratory has historical ties t ...

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre. In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family an ...

, where his younger brother

Edward Pereira Edward Thomas Pereira (26 September 1866 – 25 February 1939) was an English priest and schoolmaster, and a cricketer who played first-class cricket between 1895 and 1900 for Warwickshire and the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). He was born in C ...

('E.P.') (1866–1939) was later principal and benefactor. A third brother was Major General Sir Cecil Pereira (1869–1942), a distinguished commander in the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...

and 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 ...

Soldier

George Pereira was commissioned into the

Grenadier Guards "Shamed be whoever thinks ill of it." , colors = , colors_label = , march = Slow: " Scipio" , mascot = , equipment = , equipment ...

as a

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...

on 23 August 1884, and was promoted to

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

on 4 November 1896. Promoted to

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

on 2 May 1900, he served in China (1900) with the 1st Chinese Regiment, where he received the

Distinguished Service Order The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typ ...

(DSO) for his services during the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...

. In April 1902 he was in charge of bringing to South Africa a reinforcement of 500 officers and men of the Grenadier Guards for the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the regiment, serving there during the

. The war ended shortly after their arrival, in June 1902, and he returned home with other men of the 2nd battalion on the SS ''Galeka'' in October 1902. During the First World War, he served on the Western Front as commanding officer of 1/4th (Denbighshire) Battalion, Royal Welch Fusiliers (the pioneer battalion in

47th (1/2nd London) Division The 47th (1/2nd London) Division was an infantry division of the British Army, raised in 1908 as part of the Territorial Force. Formation The Territorial Force (TF) was formed on 1 April 1908 following the enactment of the Territorial and Res ...

)Alan H. Maude (ed.), ''The History of the 47th (London) Division 1914–1919'', London: Amalgamated Press, 1922/Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, 2002, , Appendix C. and was then promoted to officer commanding the 47th Brigade (from January 1916 to November 1917) and then the 43rd Brigade (1918). He was one of the great characters of the 16th Division. Known to the men as 'Hoppy' because of lameness after a riding accident, he was an irascible fire-eater and firm disciplinarian; characteristics he combined with an obvious concern for the welfare of his men. "Every officer and soldier of his brigade swears by him", one of his battalion commanders wrote.

Explorer

Pereira had served as British

Military attaché A military attaché is a military expert who is attached to a diplomatic mission, often an embassy. This type of attaché post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer, who retains a commission while serving with an embassy. Opport ...

Peking } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

from 1905 to 1910 and was fluent in Chinese. He made many adventurous journeys in China and Tibet, frequently travelling thousands of miles on foot. He was the first European to walk from Peking to

Lhasa Lhasa (; Lhasa dialect: ; bo, text=ལྷ་ས, translation=Place of Gods) is the urban center of the prefecture-level city, prefecture-level Lhasa (prefecture-level city), Lhasa City and the administrative capital of Tibet Autonomous Regio ...

, when he described the

Amne Machin Amne Machin, Anyi Machen, or Anyê Maqên ("Grandfather Pomra") is the highest peak of a mountain range of the same name in the southeast of Qinghai province, China. It is revered in Tibetan Buddhism as the home of the chief indigenous deity of ...

massif in eastern

in 1921–2, sometimes reckoned among the great geographical discoveries of the twentieth century. His journey from

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

along the Tibetan border in 1923 was his last, as he died of some internal trouble just before reaching Kantze (where he was buried), near Batang,

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

, in October 1923. His journals of Chinese exploration were edited shortly after his death. Further extracts from his journals have been published recently (2004–) in the ''Guards' Magazine'', edited by his great nephew, Edward Pereira.

References

* Sir

Francis Younghusband Lieutenant Colonel Sir Francis Edward Younghusband, (31 May 1863 – 31 July 1942) was a British Army officer, explorer, and spiritual writer. He is remembered for his travels in the Far East and Central Asia; especially the 1904 British e ...

(ed. and intro.), ''Peking to Lhasa; The Narrative of Journeys in the Chinese Empire Made by the Late Brigadier-General George Pereira'' (London: Constable and Company, 1925) * ''

DNB Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...

'' article by his brother, Major-General Sir Cecil Pereira {{DEFAULTSORT:Pereira George 1865 births 1923 deaths Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Companions of the Order of the Bath English explorers English Roman Catholics Explorers of Central Asia Explorers of Asia Grenadier Guards officers People educated at The Oratory School Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1914–1918 (France) British Army generals of World War I English people of Portuguese descent