Percy Sykes

Brigadier-General Sir Percy Molesworth Sykes, KCIE, CB, CMG, FRGS (28 February 1867 – 11 June 1945) was a soldier, diplomat, and scholar with a considerable literary output. He wrote historical, geographical, and biographical works, as well as describing his travels in Persia and Central Asia.

Sir Percy Molesworth Sykes
Brigadier Sir Percy Sykes with officers of original Mission Bandar Abbas, April 1916. (Standing) Major E Howell, Captain Durham, (Seated) Major G. Blair (Staff Officer) Brig General Sir Percy Sykes, Captain R.C. Ruck.
Birth namePercy Molesworth Sykes
Born28 February 1867
Died11 June 1945 (1945-06-12) (aged 78)
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch British Indian Army
RankBrigadier General
Unit16th Lancers, 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queens Bays)
Commands heldConsul-General Khuzestan,
Battles/warsSecond Boer War
AwardsKnight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire
Companion of the Order of the Bath
Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George

Early life

Percy Sykes was born in Brompton, Kent, England the only son of Army chaplain Rev. William Sykes (b. 1829)[1] and his wife Mary, daughter of Captain Anthony Oliver Molesworth, of the Royal Artillery, descended from Robert Molesworth, 1st Viscount Molesworth.[2][3] His sisters Ella Sykes and Ethel Sykes were both writers.[4] His father, William was the second son of Richard Sykes, of Edgeley House, Stockport, owner of the Sykes Bleaching Company; Percy Sykes was thus the nephew of Richard Sykes the rugby player who founded towns in America, and cousin of Sir Alan Sykes, 1st Baronet who was MP for Knutsford, Cheshire.[5][6]

He was educated at Rugby School and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.[7]

Military career

Sykes was commissioned into the 16th Lancers, but transferred to the 2nd Dragoon Guards in 1888. He was posted to India and made several journeys through Persia and Baluchistan. When he was a second lieutenant, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in November 1891.[8] He was sent on a secret mission in November 1892 when he went to Uzbekistan on the Trans-Caspian Railway.[7] Promotion to lieutenant followed on 26 April 1895, and to captain on 8 December 1897. During the Second Boer War he served as second in command of the 9th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry until September 1901.[9] He later served with the Intelligence Department[10] and was wounded in the leg.[11] He was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 1902 Coronation Honours list on 26 June 1902[12][13] In late 1902 he transferred to the Indian Army, and was Consul at Kerman in Persia. Over the next few years he made extensive journeys in the Middle East and was appointed consul-general for Khūzestān in 1906.

Sykes' 1915 photograph of Chinese officials and Sir George Macartney who served as Britain's Consul in Kashgar from 1890 until 1918

In 1915 Sykes was knighted.[11] In March 1915 he was charged as acting Consul-General in Chinese Turkestan, now Xinjiang, in the Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. Sykes traveled overland from England via Norway to the capital city of Kashgar accompanied by his sister, Ella Constance Sykes, herself a Fellow of the Geographical Society and a well-regarded expert on Persia. The two recorded their journey in series of photographs and later published Through deserts and oases of Central Asia,[14] a book which documents their nine-month journey.

While stationed in Persia he was given the temporary rank of Brigadier-General, he was placed in command of the South Persia Rifles that he raised himself.[15] His forces, consisting of some four hundred and fifty men, supported the Russians at Isfahan against Bakhtiaras and restored some order to the country. Once stationed at Isfahan, Sykes used numerous excuses to remain, including a supposed Russian request that the South Persia rifles be used as a garrison for Isfahan.[15] By 1917 numerous British authorities were calling for his removal save Lord Curzon. Despite this, Sykes was finally recalled in 1918.[15]

Later life

Sykes retired from the army in 1924, retaining the honorary rank of Brigadier-General. From 1932 until his death he was honorary secretary of the Royal Central Asian Society, now known as the Royal Society for Asian Affairs. The society has in its gift an award called The Sir Percy Sykes Memorial Medal.[16]

The Royal Geographical Society awarded him the Back grant in 1899 and the Patron's Gold Medal in 1902.[17]

Family and legacy

In 1902 he married Evelyn Seton, eldest daughter of Colonel Bruce Seton of the Royal Engineers and they had six children. His daughter Rachel married Sir Patrick Reilly the diplomat.

Percy's family later introduced the "Sykes medal", awarded to those who contributed to the understanding of Persia and Central Asia.[18]

Publications
  • Sykes, Sir Percy (1902). Ten Thousand Miles in Persia. John Murray. [7]
  • Sykes, Sir Percy (1910). The Glory of the Shia World. Macmillan Publishers.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)[7]
  • Sykes, Sir Percy (1914). Lectures delivered to the Persia Society, 1913–1914. Morrison & Gibb.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Sykes, Sir Percy (1915). A History of Persia. MacMillan.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)[7]
  • "Through Deserts and Oases of Central Asia". MacMillan. 1920.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Sykes, Sir Percy (1921). A History of Persia (2nd ed.). MacMillan.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Sykes, Sir Percy (1922). Persia. Oxford University Press.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Sykes, Sir Percy (1926). The Right Honourable Sir Mortimer Durand. Cassell & Co.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Sykes, Sir Percy (1930). A History of Persia (3rd ed.). MacMillan.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Sykes, Sir Percy (1934). A History of Exploration. George Routledge & Sons.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Sykes, Sir Percy (1936). The Quest for Cathay. A. & C. Black.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Sykes, Sir Percy (1938). À La Recherche du Cathay. Payot, Paris.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Sykes, Sir Percy (1939). Explorers All, Famous Journeys in Asia. George Newnes.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Sykes, Sir Percy (1939). Sir Percy Sykes (ed.). The Story of Exploration and Adventure. George Newnes.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Sykes, Sir Percy (1940). A History of Afghanistan. MacMillan.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Sykes, Sir Percy (1949). A History of Exploration. Routledge & Kegan Paul.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Sykes, Sir Percy (1958). A History of Persia (3rd edition, with supplementary essays ed.). MacMillan.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

Notes
  1. Two Hundred Years of the S.P.G.: An Historical Account of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 1701-1900, Based on a Digest of the Society's Records, vol. I, Charles Frederick Pascoe, 1901, p. 929
  2. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 2003, vol. 2, p. 2720
  3. Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, fortieth edition, Sir Bernard Burke, Harrison, Pall Mall, 1878, p. 835
  4. "Sykes, Ella Constance (1863–1939), traveller and writer". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/73441. Retrieved 15 October 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. Alumni Oxonienses: The Members of the University of Oxford 1715-1886, later series, S-Z, ed. Joseph Foster, Parker & Co., 1888, p. 1380
  6. Two Hundred Years of the S.P.G.: An Historical Account of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 1701-1900, Based on a Digest of the Society's Records, vol. I, Charles Frederick Pascoe, 1901, p. 929
  8. "Second Meeting, 23rd November, 1891. Election of Fellows". Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, New Series. 13: 731. 1891.
  9. "No. 27454". The London Gazette. 15 July 1902. p. 4511.
  10. Percy Molesworth Sykes, Y.M. Choueiri, A Global Encyclopedia of Historical Writing: A-J, ed. Daniel R. Woolf, (Routledge, 1998), 871.
  11. Hugh Leach and Susan Marie Farrington, Strolling About on the Roof of the World: The First Hundred Years of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs, (Routledge, 2003), 185.
  12. "The Coronation Honours". The Times (36804). London. 26 June 1902. p. 5.
  13. "No. 27456". The London Gazette. 22 July 1902. p. 4669.
  14. Through deserts and oases of central Asia, by Sykes, Ella Constance, d. 1939; Sykes, Percy Molesworth, Sir, 1867-1945 , https://archive.org/details/cu31924023243391
  15. Bureaucracies at War:The British in the Middle East in the First World War, John S. Galbraith and Robert A. Huttenback, National and International Politics in the Middle East: Essays in Honour of Elie Kedourie, ed. Edward Ingram, (Routledge, 2013), 117-119.
  16. "RSAA Awards". RSAA. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
  17. "Royal Geographical Society". The Times (36716). London. 15 March 1902. p. 12.
  18. RamHormozi, H. (2016). Averting An Iranian Geopolitical Crisis: A Tale of Power Play for Dominance Between Colonial Powers, Tribal and Government Actors in the Pre and Post World War One Era. FriesenPress. ISBN 9781460280669.

References
  • Who’s Who
  • Meyer, Karl E. and Shareen Blair Brysac (2008). Kingmakers: the Invention of the Modern Middle East. W.W. Norton.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Anthony, Wynn (2003). Persia in the Great Game – Sir Percy Sykes: Explorer, Consul, Soldier. John Murray.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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