Percy Sykes

Sir Percy Sykes (center) with officers of his staff, Bandar Abbas, April 1916

Sir Percy Molesworth Sykes KCIE , CB , CMG (born February 28, 1867 in Canterbury , † June 11, 1945 in London ) was a British officer, Asian researcher, diplomat and author who wrote a number of historical, geographical and biographical works as well as travelogues .

Life

Sykes was born the only son of the military chaplain William Sykes. He attended the private rugby school and the Royal Military College Sandhurst and in 1888 was accepted as an officer in the 16th Lancers stationed in British India . He later transferred to the 2nd Dragoon Guards (The Queen's Bays) , but was soon recruited for the Indian Political Service . In 1892 - at the time of the " Great Game " - he undertook a first reconnaissance mission to Samarkand . In 1893 he undertook a six-month journey on horseback over 2000 kilometers through Persia from Bandar-e Gaz on the Caspian Sea to Bushehr and during this he established friendly relations with the governor of Kerman , Abdol Hossein Mirza Farmanfarma . In 1894 he was sent again to Kerman to open a British consulate there. He spent the next few years in Persia with a few interruptions, undertook extensive trips and worked as a cartographer. In 1898 he opened - in front of the rival Russians - a vice consulate in Sistan .

Sir Percy Sykes with Abdol-Hossein Farmanfarma in Kerman, 1902

From 1900 he took part in the Second Boer War for some time , was wounded and wrote his first book on Persia Ten Thousand Miles in Persia during a year-long stay in England . At that time he married Evelyn, the daughter of Colonel Sir Bruce Seton. In 1903 he returned to his consul post in Kerman, accompanied by his wife. In 1905 he was appointed consul general and representative of the Indian government in Khorasan , based in Mashhad , which he was to remain for eight years. Two years in Europe followed, during which time his two-volume History of Persia was published.

In 1915, during the First World War , he became a temporary consul general in Kashgar . Soon, however, he was appointed Brigadier-General on a new mission to Persia, where in early 1916 he set up the South Persia Rifles to defend British interests in Persia during the First World War . With this group of local soldiers and Indian officers he established himself in Shiraz , the capital of the Fars province , where his friend Abdol Hossein Mirza had meanwhile become governor. At the end of 1918 he was recalled to England after repeatedly giving rise to criticism from the British government for his actions. In 1919 he finally left the service after a letter to the Times in which he criticism of the Anglo-Iranian treaty expressed also its last defenders Lord Curzon had alienated from him.

In his retirement he wrote other works, primarily on Asian history, and gave numerous lectures. He also became Honorary Secretary of the Royal Central Asian Society (now the Royal Society for Asian Affairs ), which named an award after him after his death.

Works

• Ten Thousand Miles in Persia. (1902)
• The Glory of the Shia World. (1910)
• A History of Persia. (1915)
• Through Deserts and Oases of Central Asia. (1920)
• Persia. (1922)
• The Right Honorable Sir Mortimer Durand. A biography. (1926)
• A History of Exploration. (1934)
• The Quest for Cathay. (1936)
• Explorers all. Famous Journeys in Asia. (1939)
• The Story of Exploration and Adventure. (Ed .; 1939)
• A History of Afghanistan (1940)

Awards

• Royal Geographical Society Gold Medal (1902, for his exploration of Persia)

literature

• Antony Wynn: Persia in the Great Game: Sir Percy Sykes - Explorer, Consul, Soldier, Spy. John Murray, London 2004, ISBN 0-7195-6415-8 .
• Susan Farrington, Hugh Leach: Strolling About the Roof of the World: The First Hundred Years of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs. Routledge, 2003, ISBN 0-415-29857-1 .

Web links

Commons : Percy Sykes  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Denis Wright: Sykes, Percy Molesworth in the Encyclopædia Iranica (English)