Bickford A L Lt Col Indian Army

Lieut. Col. ARTHUR LOUIS BICKFORD, C.I.E., 56th Punjab Rifles.

The Times for March 13th, 1916, contains the following notice of Major Bickford:-

“Major Arthur Louis Bickford, C.I.E., 56th Rifles, F.F., died on March 8th of wounds received in Mesopotamia. Born in October, 1870, he was the second son of Admiral A. Κ. Bickford, C.M.G., and the late Mrs. Bickford, of The Grange, Uckfield, and was educated at Stonyhurst. He received his first appointment in the Royal West Surrey Regt. in 1892, and in the following year joined the Indian Staff Corps. He was promoted Captain in the Indian Army in 1901 and Major in 1910. He served in the Tirah Expedition, 1897-8, and was awarded the medal with two clasps, and in 1906 commanded a detachment of the Khyber Rifles, who captured a raiding gang in the Kajuri Plain, north-west frontier of India, for which he received the thanks of the Government of India. He was in command of the Khyber Rifles in the Bazaar Valley Expedition, 1908, and for his services, which were mentioned in despatches, he was promoted Major by brevet and awarded the medal with clasp. From 1910 to 1913 he was commander of the Khyber Rifles, and in August, 1914, was appointed D.A.A.G., Ist (Peshawar) Division. He was created a C.I.E. in 1911.”

“Louis” Bickford, as he was known at Stonyhurst, came to the College in 1883 with his elder brother Andrew. He was just the right sort of British schoolboy-merry, active, and as hard as nails. His good-natured and buoyant disposition made him many friends among his school-mates, who were very sorry to lose him when he left us, before completing his College course, in order to take up special preparation for the Army entrance examination. The goal of his ambition was the Indian Army, in which he obtained a commission from the West Surrey Regt. in 1892. From that year till the outbreak of the Great War he had led the strenuous life of a soldier on the north-west frontier of India.

How well this career suited him might be gathered from his appearance when he re-visited Stonyhurst in 1909. He surprised all his old friends, who had not seen him since his schooldays, by his youthful, active mien and superabundant vitality. The bracing air of the Afghan frontier, and the physical and mental alertness bred of a life of continual border warfare against astute and treacherous frontier tribes, had helped to make him what he was a professional fighting man, who thoroughly knew and loved his business, and throve on it withal. His descriptions of his share in numerous border raids and punitive expeditions, light-heartedly alluded to, as if they were so many sporting excursions, were characteristic of the fine spirit of our Indian frontiersmen. That he was considered a capable officer, well versed in all the moves of the game, is evidenced by the important commands held by him.

In 1898 he served through the Tirah campaign with his regiment, the 56th Punjabis. As Major, he commanded the Khyber Rifles at their headquarters at Jamrud always a storm-centre when the border tribes are on the rove.

In the Bazaar Valley Expedition, 1908, he led this same corps to victory with conspicuous success, and was mentioned in despatches and promoted Major. The Khyber Rifles are recruited from the toughest elements among the Afghan border thieves. Such men require a strong hand on the curb in peace and a bold leader in the field. A stern disciplinarian and a stark fighter, Bickford was a Sahib after their own hearts, and his crew of half-tamed caterans worshipped him.

It was on the principle of “set a thief to catch a thief” that a detachment of his Khyber men was selected, in 1906, to deal with a particularly troublesome gang of Afridi marauders which had terrorised a portion of the north-west frontier for some months, and exhibited surprising resourcefulness in eluding capture. The command of the detachment was entrusted to Capt. Bickford, and he was given a free hand in conducting his arrangements. With great skill and secrecy, Bickford gathered his information and set a trap for the outlaws.

Ambushed when at rest in a jungle in the Kajuri Plain, the raiders were taken completely by surprise, and killed or captured to a man, after some very pretty hand-to-hand fighting, in which Bickford himself plied a bayonet and revolver, and enjoyed himself hugely, to the complete satisfaction of his admiring followers.

For this exploit he received the thanks of the Government of India.

On the occasion of his visit to Stonyhurst in 1909, the Editor of the Stonyhurst Magazine tried to extract from him a written description of the incident, but was put off with a promise that the account would be written later, when lapse of time should render such a description free from the imputation of boasting.

Meanwhile he sent to the Editor an interesting article describing a six weeks’ sojourn in Kashmir in pursuit of big game, which appeared in the Stonyhurst Magazine for October, 1909, under the title, “My First Snow Leopard.”

In the Lascha Khel expedition Major Bickford was again in command of the Khyber Rifles, and was mentioned in despatches.

In 1911 he was created a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (C.I.Ε.).

When, in 1914, his term of command of the Khyber Rifles was completed, he was immediately placed on the Divisional Staff of the Peshawar Division, receiving the important staff appointment of Deputy-Assistant-Adjutant-General, a post which he held until the welcome orders came for him to proceed with his regiment to join the army of General Townshend in Mesopotamia. The heavy fighting and unparalleled hardships endured by this gallant army, contending for so long against superior Turkish forces, is well known to all our readers. That Major Bickford’s regiment, the 56th Punjabis, had a large share in all the fighting is only too clear from their heavy list of casualties

in this, the second attempt to relieve Kut. He fell shot through the head while leading a charge on the Turkish lines, and lingered on for some hours; even his vigorous constitution succumbed to the effects of his wound, aggravated, probably, by unhealthy surroundings and the deficiency of medical supplies. His end came just at the very stage when the prospect of rapid promotion seemed to be opening out before him.

When he was brought in wounded, his brother Maurice, an officer of the 59th Rifles (Frontier Force) went to see him. “I found him lying on a stretcher. He was unconscious, and breathing heavily. He was shot through the head about 4 p.m. on the 8th, during the attack on the Dujaila Redoubt. Poor Arthur died about midnight on the 9th.”

His Brigadier added:-

“He was shot through the head while the 56th were leading a most gallant assault. He was in command of the 56th at the time. To me his loss is terrible. He was such an old friend with whom I have never had a disagreement. He was such a splendid soldier and absolutely invaluable to all of us.”

Father Peal, S.J., Chaplain of the 1st Connaught Rangers, buried him:

“I gave him Extreme Unction and his brother and I buried him in a field on the banks of the Tigris. No cross or mound marks the spot. This precaution is necessary, as the Arabs are wont to exhume bodies, and strip and mutilate them.”

In the title of this notice we have given him his “Brevet” rank of Licut.-Colonel. He had been in command of his battalion for some time before the date of the action in which he was fatally wounded. In him the Indian Army lost a most promising officer, whose rise to high command was regarded as certain, and Stonyhurst a very loyal alumnus, sincerely attached to his College and to the circle of old friends there, with whom he corresponded regularly.

An old friend wrote of him :-

“There was a certain manly simplicity about his character which everyone liked.”

His sense of duty was strong and clearly defined. For him, in the pithy formula of the Indian native soldier, “a hookum (command)  was a hookum,” whether the command came from his C.O. or his Church, and both were obeyed by him promptly, without talk or fuss.

Source : Stonyhurst Roll Of Honour 1914-1918

Bickford A L Major Indian Army

Source : The Great War Vol 8