Auction Catalogue
Create new list‘Captain William Daniel McSwiney, late of the 7th Dragoon Guards, who died at 12 Oxford Street on Friday after a long illness, was an an accomplished Russian scholar, and, indeed, a linguist of unusual attainments, for besides Russian he had qualified in Chinese, Arabic, French and German.
He was a Special Service Officer with the China Expeditionary Force of 1900-01 and his tact and reliability in circumstances of great difficulty and delicacy and his services as a linguist were acknowledged by Sir Edmund Burrow, Chief of the Staff of the Expeditionary Force. He was Railway Staff Officer at Tientsin during the Anglo-Russian railway dispute, an incident which drew from the late Lord Hardwicke in the House of Lords the warmest commendation of the tact and self-control displayed by the British officers on the spot; and he acted as interpreter in Russian at the Court of Inquiry on the shooting of a Russian seaman by a Royal Marine.
From China Captain McSwiney proceeded to South Africa and there took part in the operation in Transvaal and in the Orange River Colony in the autumn and winter of 1901 and the first three months of 1902.
In addition to these war services Captain McSwiney did valuable work as an Intelligence Officer in Persia in 1890-91 and in China, Manchuria and Siberia in 1898-99. His reconnaissance work in Persia received the thanks of the Government of India and his work in the Far East earned the thanks of the Secretary of State ... ’
His obituary in The Times, 8 January 1906, refers.
The regimentally unique Boxer Rebellion and Boer War pair awarded to Captain W. D. “Billy” McSwiney, 7th Dragoon Guards, a “Great Game” spy, explorer and linguist who was the only officer of the regiment so entitled as a consequence of his employment as a Special Service Officer: elected F.R.G.S. for his mapping and survey work in Persia, China and Manchuria in the 1890s, it is clear he undertook intelligence gathering work in the same period - work that won him the approbation of the Government of India and the Secretary of State
Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 5 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (Capt. W. D. McSwiney, 7/Drgn. Gds.); China 1900, no clasp (Capt. W. D. McSwiney, 7/Drgn. Gds.), mounted as worn, good very fine (2) £800-1200
William Daniel McSwiney was born at Kronstadt, Russia in March 1861, the fourth and youngest son of the Rev. John Henry Herbert McSwiney, Chaplain of the Russia Company at Kronstadt and his wife Emily Sarah, daughter of the late Admiral Hills, R.N. and second cousin of the late Sir Harry Verney. Young William was educated privately in Kronstadt and back home by the Rev. Thomas Nettleship Staley, Rector of Oakley.
Having passed the Sandhurst Military College examinations - but failed to pass the medical board - he entered the Staffordshire Militia as a 2nd Lieutenant in April 1880. Advanced to Lieutenant in March 1881 and to Captain in January 1884, his linguistic skills gained a wider audience in the latter year, when he translated and published E. Paul’s The Future of Egypt from a French Point of View.
In September 1886 - presumably by way of overcoming his Sandhurst medical report which prevented him from holding a regular army commission - he resigned his commission in the Militia and joined the 19th Hussars as a Private. If so, the ploy worked well, for he gained a commission in the 7th Dragoon Guards just over two years later.
Intelligence Officer - The Great Game
In April 1888, he embarked for India, where he joined his regiment at Mhow but, in 1890, on account of his linguistic skills, he was seconded to the Intelligence Branch of the Government of India's Quarter-Master General's Office Calcutta, where his brother Major E. F. H. McSwiney of the Indian Army was similarly attached. Here, then, the commencement of employment in the “Great Game”, for in December 1890 he made a reconnaissance trip with Major E. Bruce of the 19th Lancers to Persia, travelling through the Bakhtiari Mountains from Shuster to Isfahan.
In the Spring of 1891 he returned to Persia, this time accompanied by the Pundit, Imam Sharif Khan Bahadur of the Survey Department of India. As per McSwiney’s official - and secret - report, which details relations between the Arabs, Persians and Bakhtiaris, they departed Bushire on 17 April 1891.
On reaching the mouth of the Karun River, the local Customs Officer advised them that the Arabs were in revolt and and that the Governor of Arabistan had been deposed. Since McSwiney's official documents were signed by this very Governor he was reluctant to show his official papers to the Customs Officer. The latter threatened to inform the authorities in Teheran but, at length, was persuaded to permit the intrepid travellers to offload their guns and supplies. While at the mouth of the Karun the Persian Navy - in the form of their lone gun boat the Persepolis - sailed into view. McSwiney knew that the crew were German but was later to discover from Baron Schenck that the crew were indeed German but from the Russian Baltic provinces.
Travelling on to Ahwaz information was gathered on two Russian officers who were surveying in the nearby low range of hills. McSwiney, fluent in Russian, was paid a visit by a Russian Artillery officer who was in disguise as a Persian “Bandsman”. This “Bandsman” was to cause McSwiney some further problems with respect to personnel and supplies that had been promised but not supplied and it became clear that the Assistant Governor was under pressure, afraid of being reported to Teheran. Later, at Shuster, a full scale riot was experienced which ended with several Shusteri and Persian soldiers being killed. The Russian Agent asked McSwiney to help provide any medical supplies he could spare for the wounded. At Dizful, McSwiney noted that a full economic trade between Russia and the region was well established with Russian branded goods in the local Bazaar.
Throughout the trip McSwiney found the Bakhtiaris to be friendly and worthy of future co-operation, perhaps by way of supplying medical assistance and supplies. Indeed the second part of his secret report concerned his reconnaissance of the South-West portion of the Bakhtiari country, lying between the Rivers of Ab-i-Diz and the Karun. It was devoted to road and track conditions for artillery and mountain batteries and whether forage was available for the cavalry. Distances, altitude, temperature and weather were all noted with great accuracy.
The 7th Dragoon Guards departed India for Egypt in February 1893 but McSwiney did not rejoin the regiment until October 1895, so presumably his “Great Game” exploits continued apace in the interim. By now a Captain, he returned to England in late 1895 where, in October 1898, he passed his Majority exams.
In the following month, he was admitted to the Fellowship of the Royal Geographical Society, his statement of qualifications stating, ‘He has travelled all through Persia, Russia and all over India and is an expert on all questions concerning Persia.’
‘Special Extra Regimental Employment’ - The Pekin Syndicate Investment Trust Company
Shortly afterwards McSwiney was sent to China on Special Extra Regimental Employment, seconded to the Pekin Syndicate Investment Trust Company.
The Syndicate, which had been founded in 1897, was partly financed by city bankers but also attracted investment from assorted speculators and rogues. It has been described as an exploration company but one with a history which marked it as exceptional, even in the days of gold on the Rand, diamonds in South Africa, rubies in Burma and tin in Malaya. Its modus operandi was to use initial funds to bribe Chinese officials into gaining lucrative concessions with the aim of making vast profits from mining, railways or forest exploitation.
By the time McSwiney arrived in China, the Syndicate had a concession of 21,000 square miles in Shanxi and Honan Provinces where vast coal and iron ore deposits were already known. The Syndicate requested McSwiney, together with Messrs. Glass and Currie, to explore and survey the Han River in Honan, Shanxi and Chih-li provinces. McSwiney considered that China was essentially a country of waterways which should be made more use of and that whoever controlled them controlled China. He found the population to by cheerful, and well-fed and whose house boats reminded him of the ‘Thames and cheery Henley days’. McSwiney returned to England in July 1899; his reports and maps of the Han River are today held in the Royal Geographical Society Library.
Boxer Rebellion and the Anglo-Russian Railway Dispute
On the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion, McSwiney returned to China as a Special Service Officer with the China Expeditionary Force, bringing with him a personal servant, Private Pawsey, also of the 7th Dragoon Guards.
He duly became embroiled in the ‘Anglo-Russian Railway Dispute’ in Tientsin in Northern China, a dispute that centred on vast tracts of land on the left bank of the Pei-Ho River, land that had been acquired by Russian conquest and now under Russian occupation. Unfortunately, many of the plots of land belonged to the Northern Chinese Railway Administration whose assets were held by British bondholders. The British decided to build a railway siding on several plots of land held by the Russians and many boundary posts were removed by British troops. The Russians considered this an affront to their sovereignty and their flag and a stand off thus ensued.
Into this heady mix McSwiney, fluent in Russian, used all his tact and diplomacy to diffuse a delicate situation, an effort further complicated by a Royal Marine shooting and killing a Russian sailor. In the ensuing court case McSwiney acted as interpreter. In his book My Service Days, Major-General Sir Norman Stewart recalled meeting McSwiney at Tientsin railway station, where he was astonished to see two picquets composed of Cossacks and Madras Sepoys facing each other nine feet apart - or the width of a the railway siding. The dispute was eventually taken out of the hands of the officers on the ground and was solved at Government level.
From China McSwiney returned to England via Portland Maine but he was soon on his way to South Africa, again accompanied by his servant, Private Pawsey. The pair of them served with the 7th Dragoon Guards from June 1901 and fought in the Transvaal and Orange River operations. McSwiney, however, was struck down by enteric fever and was invalided back to England in March 1902.
Placed on half-pay in April 1905, he died in London in January of the following year and was buried in the Trower family plot at All Souls, Kensal Green Cemetery; sold with a large file of copied research, including his secret reconnaissance report into South-West Persia.
Also see Lot 243 for the awards to Private H. Pawsey, his personal servant in China and South Africa.
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