Maj.Gen Lionel (Stalky) Charles D. Dunsterville 1866 - 1946
Maj.Gen Lionel (Stalky) Charles D. Dunsterville , Shared study at Imperial Service College (when first established at Westward Ho, Devon, under Headship of Cornell Price) with Rudyard Kipling and ? Beresford. Set up and commanded 'Dunsterforce' in Persia, WW I. A photo of an armoured car column under Major General L C Dunsterville at Kohat is on page 75 of the War Cars by David Fletcher, published by Her Majesties Stationary Office in 1987. Dunsterville was the original inspiration for Kiplings Stalky. In a book called Stalky's Reminiscences by L C Dunsterville published by Jonathan Cape in 1928, on page 252. Dunsterville records how with his wife and daughter he sailed from England to India where he was posted to Jhelum. In June 1915 he took command of the 1st Infantry Brigade wich had recently been in action with the Mohmands on the frontier near Shabkadr. He says operations went on and off against the Mohmands until 1917. Author of "The Adventures of Dunsterforce" (London: Edward Arnold, 1920), 323 pages. http://www.sussex.ac.uk/library/manuscript/kipduns.shtml - The Kipling/Dunsterville papers http://web.ukonline.co.uk/dunsty/bio/stalky.html Andrew Sellon: An obit. of Maj-Gen Lionel Charles Dunsterville, commander of 'Dunster Force' during WW I in Mesopotamia reads: "Major-General Lionel Charles Dunsterville, C.B., C.S.I., who has resided in Port Sc. Mary since 1919, and is a Justice of the Peace for the Isle of Man, may be justly described as a soldier of eminence. He was born in 1865, and was educated at the United Serviceis College, Westward Ho, North Devon, where he was the contemporary of Mr. Rudyard Kipling. He is popularly believed: to have been the original of the hero in Kipling's celebrated story, "Stalky & Co." He entered the Royal Sussex Regiment in 1884, and transferred to the Indian Army in 1887. His military career lasted for 32 years longer. One of the romances of the great World Was centres round the experiences of the mission commanded by General Dunsterville, which operated in Persia,and later at Baku, on the Caspian Sea. The stories told by the general of how, with twelve men, he managed io bluff an army, or how he found himself obliged to co-operate with Russian ship's crews who resolved themselves into committee in presence of the enemy, are enthrallingly interesting, and they have been told, in simple, modest style, both to casual Manx audiences, and to Great Britain's most famous learned-societies." (He in fact shared a study with Rudyard Kipling at Westward Ho!). He wrote a diary:
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| Born: Lausanne, Switzerland, , 9th Nov 1866 | Baptised:
| | Died: Newton Abbot, Devon, , England 18th Mar 1946 | Buried:
| | Family: Dunsterville |
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