Kinahan Cornwallis
Encyclopedia
Sir
Sir
Sir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in many English speaking cultures...

 Kirnahan Cornwallis, GCMG, CBE
CBE
CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...

, DSO
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...

  (1883 - 3 June 1959) was a British administrator and diplomat best known for being an advisor to King Faisal
Faisal I of Iraq
Faisal bin Hussein bin Ali al-Hashemi, was for a short time King of the Arab Kingdom of Syria or Greater Syria in 1920, and was King of the Kingdom of Iraq from 23 August 1921 to 1933...

 and for being the British Ambassador to the Kingdom of Iraq during the Anglo-Iraqi War
Anglo-Iraqi War
The Anglo-Iraqi War was the name of the British campaign against the rebel government of Rashid Ali in the Kingdom of Iraq during the Second World War. The war lasted from 2 May to 31 May 1941. The campaign resulted in the re-occupation of Iraq by British armed forces and the return to power of the...

.

Biography

Kinahan Cornwallis was born in the United States and was the son of British poet, writer, and world traveler Kinahan Cornwallis
Kinahan Cornwallis (writer)
Kinahan Cornwallis was a British civil servant, poet, writer, world traveler, and Lawyer.-Biography:Kinahan Cornwallis was born in London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and attended school in Liverpool. He studied for the ministry and medicine before entering the British...

.

Director of the Arab Bureau

From 1916 to 1920, Cornwallis was the Director of the Arab Bureau
Arab Bureau
The Arab Bureau was a section of the Cairo Intelligence Department during the First World War. According to a Committee of Imperial Defence paper from January 7, 1916 the Arab Bureau was established to "harmonise British political activity in the Near East...[and] keep the Foreign Office, the India...

. He had been Deputy Director of the bureau under David Hogarth
David George Hogarth
David George Hogarth was a British archaeologist and scholar associated with T. E. Lawrence and Arthur Evans.-Archaeological career:...

, a Naval Intelligence
Naval Intelligence Division
The Naval Intelligence Division was the intelligence arm of the British Admiralty before the establishment of a unified Defence Staff in 1965. It dealt with matters concerning British naval plans, with the collection of naval intelligence...

 officer.

The Arab Bureau was created by the British as a section of the Cairo Intelligence Department during the World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. The bureau was created on the initiative of Mark Sykes and it was meant to make British decision making with regard to Arab affairs more unified and effective. Other members of the Arab Bureau included George Stewart Symes
George Stewart Symes
Lieutenant Colonel Sir George Stewart Symes GCB, GCMG, DSO was a British Army officer and colonial governor.Symes served in the South African War in 1902 and in the Aden Hinterland, 1903-1904...

, Philip Graves
Philip Graves
Philip Perceval Graves was an Irish journalist and writer. While working as a foreign correspondent of The Times in Constantinople, he exposed The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as an antisemitic plagiarism, fraud, and hoax.-Life:Graves, eldest son of the writer Alfred Perceval Graves , was born...

, Gertrude Bell
Gertrude Bell
Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, CBE was an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist who explored, mapped, and became highly influential to British imperial policy-making due to her extensive travels in Greater Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Arabia. Along...

, Aubrey Herbert
Aubrey Herbert
Aubrey Nigel Henry Molyneux Herbert was a British diplomat, traveller and intelligence officer associated with Albanian independence. Twice he was offered the throne of Albania...

, and T. E. Lawrence
T. E. Lawrence
Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence, CB, DSO , known professionally as T. E. Lawrence, was a British Army officer renowned especially for his liaison role during the Arab Revolt against Ottoman Turkish rule of 1916–18...

.

Advisor

As the British advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, Cornwallis played a part in the ratification of the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty
Anglo-Iraqi Treaty
The Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1921 was an agreement signed by the governments of the United Kingdom and the government of Iraq. The treaty was designed to allow locals a limited share in power while allowing the British to control foreign and military policy...

 of 1922. The treaty was signed by the members of the Iraqi cabinet in October 1922 and required ratification by an Iraqi 100-member constituent assembly.

On 11 September 1923, Cornwallis asked the British administrative inspectors in all Iraqi provinces (liwa
Liwa (arabic)
Liwa or Liwa is an Arabic term meaning district, banner, or flag, a type of administrative division. It was interchangeable with the Turkish term "Sanjak" in the time of the Ottoman Empire. After the fall of the empire, the term was used in the Arab countries formerly under Ottoman rule...

) to telegraph him the names of candidates who they and the Iraqi provincial governors felt would vote for the treaty.

On 8 February 1924, after considering the names, Cornwallis sent each provincial inspector and governor a list of proposed candidates for the 100-member constituent assembly. The treaty was ratified by the assembly on 24 March 1924. A quorum of only 69 out of 100 delegates participated in the meeting. Of the 69, only 37 voted for the treaty. and even these votes came only after the British High Commissioner
High Commissioner
High Commissioner is the title of various high-ranking, special executive positions held by a commission of appointment.The English term is also used to render various equivalent titles in other languages.-Bilateral diplomacy:...

 Sir Percy Cox threatened to dissolve the assembly and issue orders to occupy the assembly building and its surroundings.

In 1940, Cornwallis wrote the Introduction to Gertrude Bell's posthumously published The Arab War. Bell died in 1926. The book is indicated to be confidential information for General Headquarters from Bell and was composed of dispatches from the secret "Arab Bulletin." According to his signature, Cornwallis wrote the Introduction while in Petersfield
Petersfield
Petersfield can refer to any of the following places:*Petersfield, Hampshire, a market town in England*Petersfield, Jamaica, a small town in the parish of Westmoreland*Petersfield, Manitoba, in Canada*Petersfield, an area of Cambridge, England...

.

Ambassador to Iraq

On 1 April 1941, pro-German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 Rashid Ali and a group of supporters staged a coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...

 to depose the government of the pro-British Regent
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...

 of the Kingdom of Iraq
Kingdom of Iraq
The Kingdom of Iraq was the sovereign state of Iraq during and after the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. The League of Nations mandate started in 1920. The kingdom began in August 1921 with the coronation of Faisal bin al-Hussein bin Ali al-Hashemi as King Faisal I...

, Prince Abdul Illah
'Abd al-Ilah
Crown Prince Abd al-Ilāh of Hejaz, GCB, GCMG, GCVO was a cousin and brother-in-law of King Ghazi of the Kingdom of Iraq. Abdul Ilah served as Regent for King Faisal II from April 4, 1939 to May 2, 1953, when Faisal came of age...

. From 2 April, Cornwallis was named as the British Ambassador to Iraq. He had much experience in Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...

 and had spent twenty years in the country as the advisor to King Faisal I
Faisal I of Iraq
Faisal bin Hussein bin Ali al-Hashemi, was for a short time King of the Arab Kingdom of Syria or Greater Syria in 1920, and was King of the Kingdom of Iraq from 23 August 1921 to 1933...

 who died in 1933. Cornwallis was highly regarded and he was sent to Iraq with the understanding that he would be able to hold a more forceful line with the new Iraqi government than had hitherto been the case. Unfortunately, Cornwallis arrived in Iraq too late to prevent the outbreak of war.

On 18 April, as part of Operation Sabine, the 20th Indian Infantry Brigade was landed at Basra
Basra
Basra is the capital of Basra Governorate, in southern Iraq near Kuwait and Iran. It had an estimated population of two million as of 2009...

 without opposition. The brigade included the personnel of the Royal Artillery
Royal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery , is the artillery arm of the British Army. Despite its name, it comprises a number of regiments.-History:...

's 3rd Field Regiment; but without their guns, and the headquarters of the 10th Indian Infantry Division
Indian 10th Infantry Division
The Indian 10th Infantry Division was a war formed Infantry division of the Indian Army during World War II. In four years, the division traveled over from Tehran to Trieste, fought three little wars, and fought two great campaigns: Anglo-Iraqi War, Invasion of Syria-Lebanon, Anglo-Soviet invasion...

 landed at Basra; covered by infantry of the King's Own Royal Regiment
King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster)
The King's Own Royal Regiment was an infantry regiment of the line of the British Army, which served under various titles from 1680 to 1959. Its lineage is continued today by the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment.-History:...

. Major-General William Fraser
William Archibald Kenneth Fraser
William Archibald Kenneth Fraser, CB, CBE, DSO, MVO, MC was an officer in the British Indian Army during World War I and World War II.-Biography:...

, the commanding officer of the 10th Indian Infantry Division, assumed control over the land forces based within Iraq, initially known as Sabine Force and ultimately known as Iraqforce
Iraqforce
Iraqforce was a British and Commonwealth formation that came together in the Kingdom of Iraq. The formation fought in the Middle East during World War II.-Background:...

. Brigadier
Brigadier
Brigadier is a senior military rank, the meaning of which is somewhat different in different military services. The brigadier rank is generally superior to the rank of colonel, and subordinate to major general....

 Donald Powell
Donald Powell
Donald Powell was an officer in the British Indian Army during World War II'-Biography:As part of Iraqforce , Brigadier Powell commanded the 20th Indian Brigade of the Indian 10th Infantry Division during the Anglo-Iraqi War, the Syria-Lebanon campaign, and the Anglo-Soviet invasion of...

 commanded the 20th Indian Infantry Brigade
20th Indian Infantry Brigade
The 20th Indian Infantry Brigade was an Infantry formation of the Indian Army during World War II. It was formed in September 1940, by the conversion of the Khojak Brigade and assigned to the 9th Indian Infantry Division...

. The following day seven aircraft were flown into RAF Habbaniya
RAF Habbaniya
Royal Air Force Station Habbaniya, more commonly known as RAF Habbaniya, was a Royal Air Force station at Habbaniyah, about west of Baghdad in modern day Iraq, on the banks of the Euphrates near Lake Habbaniyah...

 to bolster the air force there.

Following the landing of the troops on 18 April, Rashid Ali requested that they be moved quickly through the country and that no more should arrive until the previous force had left. Cornwallis referred the issue to London and received the reply that there was no interest in moving the troops out of the country. London wanted to establish the troops within Iraq. Cornwallis was also informed not to inform Rashid Ali who, as he had taken control of the country via a coup d'état, had no right to be informed about British troop movements.

On 29 April, a further three ships landed at Basra and brought ancillary troops. On the same day Ambassador Cornwallis advised that all British women and children should leave Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...

; 230 civilians were escorted by road to Habbaniya
Habbaniya
The Habbaniya, or Habbania, are a Sunni Muslim tribe of the nomadic Bedouin Baggara people in the plains of Sudan's Darfur, North Kurdufan, and South Kurdufan provinces....

 and during the following days were gradually air lifted to RAF Shaibah
RAF Shaibah
RAF Shaibah was an RAF station situated at Shaibah about 13 miles south west of the city of Basrah in Iraq. The area was the site of a battle with Turkish Forces during the Mesopotamian campaign of the First World War....

. A further 350 civilians took refuge in the British Embassy and 150 British civilians in the American Legation.

On 30 April, when Ali was informed that ships containing even more British forces had arrived, he refused permission for these troops to disembark. Rashid Ali also began organising for an armed demonstration at RAF Habbaniya while anticipating German assistance would be forthcoming in the guise of aircraft and airborne troops. Later that day, Iraqi ground forces with artillery took up strong positions on the escarpment above RAF Habbaniya.

Cornwallis signalled the Foreign Office
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...

 that he regarded the Iraqi actions as an act of war which required an immediate air response. He also informed them that he intended to demand the withdrawal of the Iraqi forces and permission to launch air strikes to restore control. Even if the Iraqi troops overlooking Habbaniya did withdraw it would only postpone aerial attacks. On 1 May, the Cornwallis received a response giving him full authority to take any steps needed to ensure the withdrawal of the Iraqi armed forces. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...

 also sent a personal reply, stating:

Were contact to break down between the Embassy in Baghdad and the besieged force at Habbaniya, the Air Officer Commanding
Air Officer Commanding
Air Officer Commanding is a title given in the air forces of Commonwealth nations to an air officer who holds a command appointment. Thus, an air vice marshal might be the AOC 38 Group...

, Air Vice-Marshal
Air Vice-Marshal
Air vice-marshal is a two-star air-officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force. The rank is also used by the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence and it is sometimes used as the English translation of an equivalent rank in...

 H. G. Smart
Harry George Smart
Harry George Smart, CBE, DFC, AFC, is best known as the commander of RAF Habbaniya during the first part of the Anglo-Iraqi War. Smart was a British officer in the British Army, the Royal Flying Corps, the Royal Australian Air Force, and the Royal Air Force...

, was given permission to act on his own authority.

On 2 May, after several days of warnings and counter-warnings, Smart launched pre-emptive air strikes on the Iraqi forces positioned on the escarpment. AVM Smart also launched air attacks on Iraqi forces throughout the country. From this point, Cornwallis was confined to the British Embassy compound in Baghdad.

The British air strikes were extremely successful and, by the evening of 6 May, the Iraqis abandoned the escarpment above Habbaniya. After the arrival of elements of Habforce
Habforce
Habforce was a British Army military unit created during the Anglo-Iraqi War and still active during the Syria-Lebanon Campaign.-Creation and composition:...

, the British ground forces from Habbaniya pressed on to Fallujah
Fallujah
Fallujah is a city in the Iraqi province of Al Anbar, located roughly west of Baghdad on the Euphrates. Fallujah dates from Babylonian times and was host to important Jewish academies for many centuries....

 and, after its fall, they advanced towards Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...

. On 29 May, the government of Rashid Ali collapsed and he and his supporters fled to Persia.

On the morning of 31 May, the Mayor of Baghdad and a delegation approached British forces at the Washash Bridge outsdide of Baghdad. With the Mayor was Sir Kinahan Cornwallis. Terms were quickly reached, an armistice
Armistice
An armistice is a situation in a war where the warring parties agree to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, but may be just a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace...

 was signed, and the monarchy and a pro-British government were put back in place. On 1 June, the Regent returned to Baghdad.

Marriage

On 14 October 1911, Sir Kinahan Cornwallis married Gertrude Dorothy Bowen, daughter of Sir Albert Edward Bowen
Sir Albert Bowen, 1st Baronet
Sir Albert Edward Bowen, 1st Baronet was an English businessman who spent much of his life in Argentina.Bowen was born in Hanley, Staffordshire. His family emigrated to Canada when he was a boy and he was educated at Upper Canada College in Toronto...

, 1st Baronet, and Alice Anita Crowther. They were divorced in 1925.

See also

  • Arab Revolt
    Arab Revolt
    The Arab Revolt was initiated by the Sherif Hussein bin Ali with the aim of securing independence from the ruling Ottoman Turks and creating a single unified Arab state spanning from Aleppo in Syria to Aden in Yemen.- Background :...

  • Greater Syria
    Greater Syria
    Greater Syria , also known simply as Syria, is a term that denotes a region in the Near East bordering the Eastern Mediterranean Sea or the Levant....

  • Arab Bureau
    Arab Bureau
    The Arab Bureau was a section of the Cairo Intelligence Department during the First World War. According to a Committee of Imperial Defence paper from January 7, 1916 the Arab Bureau was established to "harmonise British political activity in the Near East...[and] keep the Foreign Office, the India...

  • Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916
    Sykes-Picot Agreement
    The Sykes–Picot Agreement of 1916 was a secret agreement between the governments of the United Kingdom and France, with the assent of Imperial Russia, defining their respective spheres of influence and control in Western Asia after the expected downfall of the Ottoman Empire during World War I...

  • League of Nations
    League of Nations
    The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...

  • British Mandate of Mesopotamia
  • British Mandate of Palestine
  • Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1922
    Anglo-Iraqi Treaty
    The Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1921 was an agreement signed by the governments of the United Kingdom and the government of Iraq. The treaty was designed to allow locals a limited share in power while allowing the British to control foreign and military policy...

  • Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1930
    Anglo-Iraqi Treaty (1930)
    The Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1930 was a treaty of alliance between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the British-Mandate-controlled administration of the Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq. The treaty was between the governments of George V of the United Kingdom and Faisal I of Iraq...

  • Kingdom of Iraq
    Kingdom of Iraq
    The Kingdom of Iraq was the sovereign state of Iraq during and after the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. The League of Nations mandate started in 1920. The kingdom began in August 1921 with the coronation of Faisal bin al-Hussein bin Ali al-Hashemi as King Faisal I...

  • British-Iraqi relations
    British-Iraqi relations
    British–Iraqi relations are foreign relations between Iraq and the United Kingdom. Sanctions against Iraq prevented any form of economic relations with the United Kingdom and any other country for thirteen years...

  • 1941 Iraqi coup d'état
  • Farhud
    Farhud
    Farhud refers to the pogrom or "violent dispossession" carried out against the Jewish population of Baghdad, Iraq, on June 1-2, 1941 during the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. The riots occurred in a power vacuum following the collapse of the pro-Nazi government of Rashid Ali while the city was in a...

  • T. E. Lawrence
    T. E. Lawrence
    Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence, CB, DSO , known professionally as T. E. Lawrence, was a British Army officer renowned especially for his liaison role during the Arab Revolt against Ottoman Turkish rule of 1916–18...

     - Following Lawrence and archaeologist D. G. Hogarth
    David George Hogarth
    David George Hogarth was a British archaeologist and scholar associated with T. E. Lawrence and Arthur Evans.-Archaeological career:...

    , Corwallis edited the Arab Bulletin (1916–1920).
  • Gertrude Bell
    Gertrude Bell
    Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, CBE was an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist who explored, mapped, and became highly influential to British imperial policy-making due to her extensive travels in Greater Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Arabia. Along...

     - Corwallis wrote introduction to The Arab War. Confidential Information for General Headquarters from Gertrude Bell. Being Despatches reprinted from the secret "Arab Bulletin."
  • Rashid Ali Al-Gaylani - Corwallis was British Ambassador to Iraq during his uprising.
  • Mulla Effendi
    Mulla Effendi
    Mulla Abu Bakr Effendi, also Mulla Effendi , also Abu Bakr IIII or Küçük Mulla was a senior Kurdish Muslim cleric, Islamic philosopher, scholar, astronomer, politician, and a prominent Iraqi personality from Arbil, Iraq.Mulla Effendi was born into a respected and intellectual family of Islamic...

     - Corwallis attended the funeral for this respected Arab leader.
  • Claudius James Rich
    Claudius James Rich
    Claudius James Rich , British business agent, traveller and antiquarian scholar,-Biography:Rich was born near Dijon....


External links

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