Wilfred Malleson British Major General Date of Birth: 08.09.1866 Country: Great Britain

1. Biography of Wilfred Malleson
2. Early Life and Service
3. Service in Africa and Asia
4. Involvement in Asian Conflicts

Biography of Wilfred Malleson

Wilfred Malleson was a British Major General who served as the head of the British military mission in India, Afghanistan, and the Transcaspian region from 1918 to 1919. He was born on September 8, 1866, into the family of a rector named E. Malleson. He received his education in Wimbledon and Woolwich, and in 1886, he graduated from the Royal Artillery School.

Early Life and Service

Malleson began his military career in 1886 in the Royal Artillery, which was converted into the Indian Army in 1904. He served under the command of Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, the first Earl Kitchener, in Khartoum and Brum as the Chief of the Intelligence Department of the Indian Army's General Staff (1904-1910). He led intelligence operations at the British Army Headquarters in India until 1914. From 1904 to 1910, he was also a member of a mission in Kabul, Afghanistan, led by Sir Louis William Dane.

Service in Africa and Asia

From October 1914 to January 1915, Malleson served as the Inspector General of British Communications in East Africa. In January-April 1915, he was on a special mission in the Belgian Congo. He commanded a brigade and a division in British East Africa from 1915 to 1916. In 1918, he was sent to the Transcaspian region at the head of a British military mission with the task of organizing resistance to the expected German-Turkish offensive after the fall of Baku. Operating from his headquarters in Meshed, northeastern Iran, he played a prominent role in organizing the fight against the Bolsheviks in Turkistan, a region that later became known as Central Asia. Malleson provided military support to the Transcaspian Temporary Government, with whom he signed a formal agreement on August 19, 1918, and assisted in the organization of the armed forces of the Transcaspian government, known as the Turkestan Army. Shortly after that, the mission relocated to Ashkhabad, where it remained until the beginning of the Afghan War.

Involvement in Asian Conflicts

Wilfred Malleson participated in the English Intervention in Central Asia from 1918 to 1920 and the war in Afghanistan in 1919. From 1920 onwards, he was in retirement. He passed away on January 24, 1946. In Soviet historiography, he was held responsible for the execution of the 26 Baku Commissars, although he denied any involvement in the incident.