Britain's Small Forgotten Wars
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  • 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
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    • Three Graves: The Nile Expedition - Battle of Kirbekan, Sudan, 1885
    • Punishing Okurike, Nigeria 1893
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    • (Abyssinia, 1935-36)
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    • (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
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  • 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
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    • 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)

FIGHTING DACOITS, BURMA, 1887
Lieutenant Charles Brownlow Macdonald, HMS Ranger
St. Anne's, Portsea, Hampshire 

Picture
November , 1855, and The Craig, a mediaeval castellated house overlooking the Montrose Basin, had seen the arrival of another child into the Macdonald family. Charles Brownlow Farquharson Macdonald was the third child of William Macdonald Farquharson Colquhoun Macdonald, of St. Martin's Abbey, an estate near Perth. I assume that the family came into possession of The Craig through William's wife, born Clara Anne Brownlow, who was the daughter of a prominent Ulster politician, the first Baron Lurgan. It is a beautiful spot, on the market for one and a half million pounds in 2016; it is a shame that Charles did not have the lifetime to enjoy it.

Although father William was nominally a Colonel, he was Colonel of the 2nd Perthshire Highland Rifle Volunteers, and there is no evidence that he ever saw action, and I suspect he was more a gentry landlord than a soldier. The Censuses locate the family variously in Edinburgh (Canaan House in Morningside, now a children's home), the Isle of Wight, and Kensington, and twice he is described as a Magistrate. Three of his sons, however, joined the forces: the eldest, William Montague, in the Grenadier Guards; Charles in the Royal Navy, entering the training ship HMS Britannia in 1869, aged fourteen; and the third son, harry, became a Major in the Seaforth Highlanders.

​I do not know the earlier stages of Charles' naval career, but he was made Lieutenant in 1879, and in 1885 was appointed to HMS Ranger, a former survey vessel converted to a gunvessel  to serve in Burma, where Britain was fighting in what it called the Third Burmese War, a conflict which was what we now call "regime change", deposing the Burmese King Thibaw Min as retribution for his not allowing British companies the freedom to do as they wished in his kingdom. Look it up in the books and you will be told that the war lasted a mere three weeks, and ended with the overthrow of the monarch and the imposition of British rule.

Unfortunately no-one convinced the Burmese that the war had ended. With the deposition of the King the Burmese army had been disbanded, which sent thousands of fighting army out into the jungled countryside, with their weapons.

What actually happened to Lieutenant Charles Brownlow Macdonald is difficult to describe in detail. That a force from HMS Ranger  attacked a stockade is known. Those defending the stockade are described on Macdonald's memorial as "dacoits", but what does that mean? Were they just bandits, thieves ravaging the countryside? Were they men fighting under the aegis of a local chieftain, defending his localised power? Were they disbanded members of the defeated king's army, waging a guerrilla war? Whichever, they were behind the stockade when Lieutenant Charles Brownlow Macdonald led the attack. He was shot and killed.

Charles' death meant that he never inherited the title of Laird of St. Martin's. His father died in Funchal on Madeira in 1893. Eldest brother William Montague died in 1922, without heir. Henry died in London, also childless, in 1924. The youngest son, Francis Roderick, died in 1936, described as "the last Laird of St. Martin's". 

That is not the end of the Macdonald line though. Charles had an elder sister, Emily Jane (1853-1918), who married the M.P. for Co. Monaghan, Sewallis Evelyn Shirley, of Ettington Park, Warwickshire (now a hotel). Lovers of pedigree dogs might want to visit the hotel, as Sewallis Shirley is regarded as the founder of The Kennel Club. He and Emily have descendants living today; I wonder if they have thought of buying land near Perth and re-establishing the Lairdship?
Picture

SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF LIEUT CHARLES BROWNLOW MACDONALD RN HMS RANGER KILLED IN ACTION BURMA/ JANUARY 9TH 1887 AND TO THE OFFICERS, SEAMEN AND/ MARINES OF HMS RANGER WHO DIED DURING HER COMMISSION IN THE EAST INDIES 1884 - 1887 ERECTED BY THEIR SHIPMATES
'Sources
Pictures
'A group of dacoits captured near Mandalay' - photo by Willoughby McKinlay Cooper. 1886. From the British Library Online Gallery @ www.bl.uk. This wonderful site has a stunning collection of images.
'S stockade occupied by the Myinzein Myntha, a Prince who aspired to the vacant throne of Burma' - ibid.

Military
Wikipedia - Third Anglo-Burmese War
The London Gazette 2/9/1887, page 4767
www.dreadnaught.project.org - fascinating site working on logging all ships and officers of the dreadnaught period of the British Navy.
www.britishempire.co.uk

Genealogy
www.ancestry.co.uk
​Macdonald Macdonald Family Records' (Jesse Montgomery Seaver, American Historical-Genealogical Society, Philadelphia, 1929)
The Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. 156 (September 1834, p.317)
www.thepeerage.com

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