20 JULY

BRITISH REIGN OF TERROR AT BENARES 4 June 1857 – Colonel James Neill, imposes a reign of terror at Benares after crushing the mutinous Indian soldiers of the 37th Native infantry. He armed civilians so that they could form “volunteer hanging parties”, and so pacify the city with summary and indiscriminate hangings, who’s victims even…

WINSTON CHURCHILL WITNESSES THE DESTRUCTION OF AN ENTIRE VALLEY OF VILLAGES [ 15 September 1897 ] On 15 September 1897, Lieutenant Winston S. Churchill, who was temporarily freelancing as a war correspondent, joined a punitive British military expedition, under Major General Sir Bindon Blood, as it began to move against the Mamunds of the Watelai…

BRITISH CRUSH OPPOSITION TO DUTCH COLONIAL RULE IN SURABAYA, KILLING HUNDREDS, INCLUDING MANY CIVILIANS. 10 November 1945 – British army launched a military assault on the Indonesian city of Surabaya where nationalist opposition groups refused to submit to Dutch colonial rule. Many hundreds, possibly thousands, were killed, including many civilians, as British and Indian soldiers,…

WIDER POWERS OF COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT AUTHORIZED IN KENYA 25 November 1952 – Sir Evelyn Baring, British governor of Kenya, issues new emergency measures designed to widen the conditions for the imposition of collective punishment on the kikuyu population in areas considered sympathetic to the anti-British Mau Mau insurgency. The pro-Empire Daily Express commented the same day…

BRITISH GENERAL RELUCTANT TO INVESTIGATE THE CRIMES OF PRO-BRITISH LOYALIST MILITIA 27 August 1953 – General Erskine, commanding British forces in Kenya, reports to the War Office his strong belief that it would be best not to investigate the war crimes of the police or the King’s African Rifles, British led colonial troops, too thoroughly….

GENERAL AUTHORISES USE OF ARAB HOSTAGES TO PROTECT ARMY CONVOYS [ 18 September 1936 ] On 18 September 1936, Lieutenant General John Dill, who had arrived in Jerusalem five days earlier to take command of British forces in Palestine, informed Sir Cyril Deverell, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, that he intended to use…