Anglo-Persian War - 1856

1856

Two courses of action were available to the British, to mount an overland expedition through Afghanistan or attack the Persian empire from the south through the Persian Gulf; the aim being both punitive, and to force the Shah to ask for terms. The British Government decided to attack in the general area of Bushire, a small city near the southern coast of Persia and ordered the Government in India to launch a maritime expeditionary force. In the aftermath of the disastrous First Afghan War, the British were reluctant to send a force through Afghanistan to relieve Herat directly. Instead, they elected to attack the Persians on the Persian Gulf coast.

Initially a division, under Major General Foster Stalker, was organised comprising 2300 British soldiers and 3400 Indian sepoys of the Bombay Presidency army which landed in Persia in early December 1856. This included two companies of the Bombay Sappers & Miners. These were:

• The 2nd Company, under Captain C.T. Haig, (Bombay Engineers)
• The 4th Company, under Captain J. Le Mesurier, (Bombay Engineers)

The two companies were accompanied by the headquarters of the Corps of Bombay Sappers and Miners, under Captain W.R. Dickinson, (Bombay Engineers). Major J. Hill, the erstwhile Commandant of the Bombay Sappers and Miners, who had handed the Corps over to Dickinson, was appointed as the Commanding Engineer for this expedition. After the expedition he resumed the post of Commandant of the Bombay Sappers once again.

Soon after the induction of the force, it was considered to be inadequate for the task and a second division under Brigadier General Henry Havelock was formed and the entire expedition placed under command of Major General Sir James Outram. This force inducted in January 1857.

During the hostilities, 'B' Company of the Madras Sappers & Miners under Brevet-Major A.M. Boileau, Madras Engineers, embarked at Coconada on 19 January and reached the force just in time for participating in operations in Southern Mesopotamia.

The first division under Stalker set sail from Bombay in November after the declaration of war, on a squadron or flotilla of seven steamships under Commodore Young, towing thirty sailing vessels. The British landed a force and captured the island of Kharag on 4 December and landed ashore on 9 December on the coast a few miles south of Persia's primary port of Bushire.