Description

Lieutenant Colonel P.C. Garrett began his army service in India in a British regiment in 1933-34. He then joined the 2nd Battalion, the Frontier Force Regiment which was stationed in Jubbulpore. In 1938 he transferred to the South Waziristan Scouts and by 1945 he was second in command of the Zhob Militia. After brief service in Greece, Colonel Garrett attended a course at the Staff College in Quetta. Between 1947 and 1950 Garrett was on contract with the Government of Pakistan as Commander of the Zhob Militia.

The papers include some thirty typescript sections of a monograph on Frontier forces which Colonel Garrett had prepared in response to a request from Professor T. Farrell in the U.S.A. Some of the material described here appears in a microfilm listed as ‘Anonymous 2’ in Volume 1 of Cambridge South Asian Archive.

Given by Mrs Garrett.

Envelope 1

1. Letters to Professor Farrell from Garrett concerning the possible book on the Zhob Militia and the Frontier Force. 15 July 1968 – 3 October 1969. ff 1-25.
2. Copy of a memoir entitled “Gilgit 1947 and After” by Major W.A. Brown, M.B.E. An account of Major Brown’s time in Gilgit while Commandant of the Gilgit Scouts during the period when the Maharajah of Kashmir acceded to India. How Brown and his second in command, Captain A.S. Mathieson, decided to use the scouts to stage a coup d’etat and take complete control of the Agency and then offer it to Pakistan. ff 26-29.
3. Three letters concerned with above memoir from and to W.A. Brown and Garrett. December 1970 and March 1971. ff 3033.
4. Commencement of Colonel Garrett’s monograph. Notes on the Civil Armed Forces (Scouts). Written 20 July 1968. It covers an historical. outline of the Zhob Militia; from where the officers were drawn; why they joined the scouts and a general outline of the equipment used. ff 34-53.
5. Continuation of monograph. Written 8 March 1968. On the Mekran and Chagi Levy Corps; characteristics required of a Scouts Officer. ff 53-6.
6. Continuation of monograph. Written 10 September 1968. Covering the tribal composition of the South Waziristan Scouts and the Zhob Militia and their promotion system. Several British officers are named and characteristic incidents given. ff 57-65.
7. Continuation of monograph. Written 21 October 1968 covering the following: Why Scouts enlisted; why the Scouts Officers were mistrusted; why there is no history of the Scouts. ff 66-72.
8. Continuation of monograph. Written 1 October 1968. How the Scout readjusted to his regiment and were the Scouts a back door to the Political Department? ff 73-80.
9. Continuation of monograph. Written 15 November 1968. The difficulty in finding the type of man adequate to make a Scouts Officer during the war. Several short biographies under pseudonyms. ff 81-97.
10. Continuation of monograph. Written 1 April 1969. The Role of the Inspecting Officer, Frontier Corps. Short outspoken biographies and anecdotes of the following Chief Scouts: Colonel Dick Wilson; Brigadier Nat Cosby; Brigadier David Williams; Brigadier Mike Bailey; Brigadier Denis Ambrose; Colonel Fitzmaurice. Short note on the sillidar system. ff 98-109.
11. Continuation of monograph. Written April 1969. Covering Orderlies – their use, selection and anecdotal memories. ff 110-43.
12. Continuation of monograph. Written May 1969. Covering the various types and methods of gashting used in the Frontier Corps including three pages of hand-drawn diagrams. ff 144-158.
13. Continuation of monograph. Written May 1969. Covering, with diagrams, the Corps organisation and administration. ff 159-162.
14. Continuation of monograph. Written in 1943 with a later appendix in 1969. Giving a brief description of life in the Frontier Corps on the North West Frontier in general and in the South Waziristan Scouts in particular. ff 163-204.
15. Continuation of monograph. Written April 1938 covering the action at Dargai Sar and includes the official report by D.L. Woods, Officiating Commandant. In 1969 Garrett added a note on the personalities mentioned. ff 205-20.
16. Continuation of monograph. These notes were written by Garrett in 1943 as a commentary on India’s North West Frontier by Sir William Barton. ff 221-43.
17. Continuation of monograph. Written in June 1969. Covering why, where and when, a Scouts’ post was built and includes a diagram. ff 244-8.

Envelope 2

1. Continuation of monograph. Written in July 1969. An account of the Indian Political Service with brief sketches of 23 I.P.S. Officers. ff 1-16.
2. Continuation of monograph. Written in July 1969. An account of equipment – what the Scout wore. ff 17-22.
3. Continuation of monograph. Written in August 1969. Further notes on equipment, in particular, musketry training; insignia and uniforms. ff 23-25.
4. Continuation of monograph. Written in August 1969. A note on militarisation. f 26.
5. Continuation of monograph. Written in March 1970. An account of the Mahsud Battalions. ff 27-30.
6. Continuation of monograph. Written in April 1970. Extracts from replies of Evelyn Cobb, Stanley Williams and Sir Ambrose Dundas to questions on certain officers. ff 31-7.
7. Continuation of monograph. Written in April 1970. Extract from a letter from Sir B. Bromhead about an officer. ff 38-40.
8. Continuation of monograph. Written in May 1970. Note on how Political Officers retained military rank and how the system of “Lay Books” worked. ff 41-5.
9. Continuation of monograph. Written in August 1970. Note on possible connections between the original Frontier Corps and more recently raised Scouts in the Persian Gulf. ff 46-50.
10. Continuation of monograph. Written in January 1971. Contains comments on Professor Farrell’s draft chapters on Gilgit-Chitral and on other matters. ff 51-6.
11. Continuation of monograph. Written in May 1971. Further notes on Gilgit-Chitral. ff 57-66.
12. Continuation of monograph. Written in July 1971. Notes collected from talks with Brigadier Barker about the South Waziristan Militia. ff 67-71.
13. Continuation of monograph. Written in August 1971. Notes on Armoured Lorries together with photocopy of an article on this subject by Major D.H.J. Williams in the Journal of the Royal United Service Institute.

Envelope 3

Originals of Colonel Garrett’s letters to Professor Farrell, 18 March 1969 – 23 July 1974. The letters relate to the drafts of Colonel Garrett’s monograph and cover a wide range of matters. They include further biographical details of officers employed on the Frontier. 145 ff.

Envelope 4

1. Copies (typescript and xerox) of what are evidently chapters of Professor Farrell’s book. These are entitled: ‘Curzon’s Plan’; ‘Background of Militia Officers’; ‘Waziristan till 1898’; ‘The Founding of the Waziristan Militias’; ‘Sir Robert Sandeman and the Founding of the Zhob Levy Corps’; ‘The Gilgit Scouts’; ‘Robert Warburton and the Khyber Rifles’. There is also the draft of an introductory survey of the region. ff 1-93.
2. Comments by Colonel Garrett on some of the drafts in (1) above. ff 94-8.
3. Memoir by N. Cosby of many aspects of his career on the North West Frontier. ff 99-120.
4. Xerox copy of article by Major D.H. Williams on a lightweight radio telephone set from Journal of the Royal United Services institute. ff 121-6.