Britain's Small Forgotten Wars
  • Home
  • All Conflicts
  • The Churches
  • Africa
    • The Attack on Algiers, 1816
    • Bailey's Grave & Auta's Cave: Eighth Xhosa (Kaffir) War, South Africa, 1850-53
    • (The Expedition to Abyssinia, Ethiopia, 1867-68)
    • Asante! Third Ashanti War, Ghana, 1872-73
    • Bleeding in the Dirt: Zulu War, Battle of Kambula, 1879
    • Taking on the Slavers, Zanzibar, 1881
    • (Battle of Kassassin, Egyptian war, 1882)
    • Beau Geste: Mahdist Wars, Sudan, 1881-1899
    • Far from the fells of Wensleydale: First Boer War: Ingogo/ Schuinshoojgte 1881
    • Three Graves: The Nile Expedition - Battle of Kirbekan, Sudan, 1885
    • Punishing Okurike, Nigeria 1893
    • Fight against Slavery, Zanzibar, East Africa, 1895
    • Fight Against Slavery, Madina Creek, Gambia, 1894
    • The Fight at Mguni's Stronghold: 2nd Matabele War, Rhodesia, 1896
    • War of the Golden Stool, Ghana, 1900
    • Battle of Atbara, Sudan, 1898
    • Accident & Ambush: 1st Somaliland Campaign, 1901
    • Gumburru and Daratoleh, 1903 Somaliland Campaign
    • The Sokoto Caliphate, Nigeria, 1903
    • Third Somaliland Campaign, 1904
    • The Silent Ones: Asaba Hinterland Operation, Nigeria, 1904
    • The Satiru Uprising, Nigeria, 1906
    • (Abyssinia, 1935-36)
    • The Kolloa Affray, Kenya, 1950
    • (Mau Mau Uprising , Kenya, 1952-60)
  • Americas
    • (American Revolution 1780)
    • Lost Colours: Rio de la Plata, Argentina and Uruguay, 1805-06
    • The British-American War 1813
    • (Venezuelan War of Independence, 1811-21)
    • The Franklin Coppermine Expedition, North-East Canada, 1819-22
    • (American Civil War, USA, 1861-65)
    • Cut Knife Creek, North-West Rebellion, Canada, 1885
    • Battle of Coronel, Chile, 1914
  • Asia
    • Farewell to a Fireworker: Invasion of Java, 1811
    • One Shot More: The Anglo-Nepalese War, Nepal, 1814
    • The Pirates of Borneo, 1844
    • Fighting Dacoits, Burma, 1887
    • Storming of Namtow, China, 1858
    • Chin Lushai Expedition, Burma, 1890
    • The Kachin Hills, Burma, 1893
    • Siege of Tientsin, Boxer Rebellion, China, 1900
    • Siege of the Legations, Peking, China, 1900
    • The Younghusband Expedition, Tibet, 1904
    • The Lost Lieutenant: Russo-Japanese War, Manchuria/ China, 1905
    • The Singapore Mutiny, 1915
    • The Wahnsien Incident, China, 1926
    • (Hsaya San Rebellion, Burma, 1930)
    • (The Malayan Insurgency, Malaya, 1954-57)
    • (Yangtze River Incident, China, 1949)
    • Battle of Happy Valley, Korea, 1951
  • Australasia
    • The Flagstaff War, New Zealand, 1845
    • Struck in the Middle: Waikato War, New Zealand, 1863-64
    • Heni Te Kiri Karamu: Tauranga War, New Zealand, 1864
    • (Titokowaru's War, New Zealand, 1868-69)
  • Europe
    • (French Revolutionary War, 1794)
    • And he marched them back again: The Invasion of North Holland, 1799
    • Call in the Marines: The First Carlist War, Spain, 1834-39
    • Hail the Messiah: The Battle of Bossenden Wood, England, 1837
    • International Occupation of Crete, 1897
    • The Dover Patrol, English Channel, 1914-18
    • Q Ships, Bay of Biscay, 1917
    • Irish Independence, Limerick, Ireland, 1922
    • Corfu Channel Incident, 1946
    • Someone Has To Be The First, Londonderry, Northern Ireland, 1972
  • India
    • First British-Mysore War, 1768
    • Building Bombay: the Seizure of Salsette 1774
    • "So I may die like one brave soldier": 4th British-Mysore War, 1799
    • Battle of Assaye, 2nd Maratha War, 1803
    • The Vellore Mutiny, 1806
    • A Symbol of British Dominance, Nagpur, 1817
    • Arrow in the Skull: Conflict with the Bheels, 1833
    • Siege of Bharatpur, Rajasthan, 1826
    • (The Retreat from Kabul, 1842)
    • The Gwalior Campaign, Madhya Pradesh, 1843
    • First Sikh War, Punjab, 1845-46
    • (Second Sikh War, Punjab, 1848-49)
    • Matale Rebellion, Sri Lanka/ Ceylon, 1848
    • The Kohat pass, North-West Frontier, 1850
    • Let The Killing Begin, Meerut, India, 1857
    • Independence or Mutiny? Oudh, India, 1857
    • "A Mutinous Sepoy", Vellore, 1858
    • Attack on Wana, Waziristan, 1894
    • Malakand Field Force, North-West Frontier, 1897
    • (Tirah Expedition, North-West Frontier, 1897-98)
    • Third Afghan War, North-West Frontier, 1919
    • (Waziristan, North-West Frontier, 1936-37)
  • Middle East
    • Storming Sidon: The Oriental Crisis, Egyptian-Ottoman War, 1840
    • (Anglo-Persian War, 1856)
    • (Aden Hinterland, 1905)
    • The Palestinian revolt, Palestine, 1939
    • (Oman, 1971-75)
  • (Battle of Omdurman, Sudan, 1898)
  • (Siege of Azimghur, India, 1858)


BRITAIN'S FORGOTTEN CONFLICTS - AND THE STORIES OF THOSE WHO DIED IN THEM. A LOOK AT BRITAIN'S MILITARY PAST THROUGH THE MEDIUM OF WAR MEMORIALS

After all the media coverage of World War One it is easy to think that war was all about trenches and the Somme, but Britons have been fighting for their country for hundreds of years, all over the world, and their deaths did not end with World War Two.

NEW: The Arab Revolt, Palestine, 1939


This site is an attempt to look at Britain's plethora of military campaigns using memorials to those who died in them as a starting point. I am avoiding the more obvious conflicts, or at least their most obvious aspects, as they are so well covered already, and am trying to identify instead the more obscure campaigns. Having said that, there are some World War 1 stories here, as it appears to be easy to ignore the naval side of that conflict, and fighting was not restricted to Western Europe and Gallipoli.

Any positive criticism is more than welcome, as would be the pointing out of any factual inaccuracies I may have included. The majority of the research involved has been online, and inevitably Wikipedia features a lot, as does Ancestry for the family research. I have listed all my sources at the end of each narrative, although, as this is not a university dissertation, I have not annotated the specific references. If anyone knows of an inscription that they think would be appropriate for me to write about, or comes across one, please let me know. I suspect the site will never be finished, for there will always be another name to find, another conflict to discover, another family story to follow.

Jon Dewhirst
March, 2015

IF YOU KNOW OF AN INSCRIPTION THAT YOU BELIEVE SHOULD BE ON THIS SITE, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. A TRANSCRIPTION, EVEN BETTER A PHOTO, WOULD BE EVEN MORE APPRECIATED
Please click here to contact me - (feedback would also be welcomed)



 © Jonathan Dewhirst 2020

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