Lionel Dunsterville
| Lionel Dunsterville | |
|---|---|
Lionel Dunsterville
|
|
| Born | 9 November 1865 |
| Died | 18 March 1946 (aged 80) |
| Allegiance |
 United Kingdom
|
| Service/branch |
 British Indian Army
|
| Rank | Major General |
| Battles/wars | World War I |
| Awards |
Companion of the Order of the Bath Companion of the Order of the Star of India |
Major General Lionel Charles Dunsterville CB, CSI (9 November 1865 – 18 March 1946) was a British general, who led the Dunsterforce across present-day Iraq and Iran towards Caucasus and oil-rich Baku.
Lionel Charles Dunsterville went to school with Rudyard Kipling at The United Services College, a public school later absorbed into Haileybury and Imperial Service College, which prepared British young men for careers in Her Majesty's Army. He served as the inspiration for the character "Stalky" in Kipling's collection of school stories Stalky & Co. He was also uncle to H.D. Harvey-Kelly, the first Royal Flying Corps pilot to land in France in World War I.
He was commissioned into the British Army infantry in 1884. Later he transferred to the colonial Indian Army and served on the North-West Frontier, in Waziristan and in China.
In the First World War he held a posting in India. At the end of 1917 the Army appointed Dunsterville to lead an Allied force of under 1,000 Australian, British, Canadian and New Zealand troops, drawn from the Mesopotamian and Western Fronts, accompanied by armoured cars, from Hamadan some 350 km across Qajar Persia. His mission was to gather information, train and command local forces, and prevent the spread of German propaganda. On his way to Enzeli he also fought Mirza Kuchik Khan and his Jangali forces in Manjil.
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