Attack on the British residency at Bushehr

On 12 July 1915 armed tribesmen from Tangistan, a coastal district south of Bushehr, attacked the British residency in that town. Bushehr was the main port of Persia on the Persian Gulf and since the 19th century the seat of the British political resident, who oversaw Britain’s interests throughout the Gulf. The residency was guarded by a small garrison of Indian troops, made up of soldiers of the 96th Berar Infantry. Persia was a neutral state, but from the beginning of the war its south had become an arena of rivalry between the British and German agents.

Rais Ali and the German agents

The attackers were led by Rais Ali, a chief from the coastal village of Delvar, about 30 kilometres south of Bushehr. He had old scores to settle with the British: in 1913, in a dispute over piracy, Royal Navy ships had destroyed the fishing and trading boats of the people of Delvar. Now the Germans exploited his hostility. In southern Persia Wilhelm Wassmuss was active, the pre-war German vice-consul in Bushehr, who in the spring of 1915 had barely escaped from tribes allied with the British. Wassmuss and other German agents persuaded the tribes that the Germans were friends of Islam and paid them to rise against the English. The British had no doubt that the July attack was the fruit of their urging.

Tension had been mounting since the spring. As early as May the governor of Bushehr, who knew of a plot against the residency and could not rely on his own gendarmes, asked the British for help. About 200 Indian soldiers then took part in a clash with the rebels, and the garrison was reinforced to roughly half a battalion.

Ambush and assault

According to the British official history of the operations in Persia, on 12 July the commander of the posts, Major Oliphant of the 96th, received word that armed men had been seen in dry stream beds about 3 kilometres south of the line of outposts. Oliphant rode out to reconnoitre together with Captain Ranking, the assistant political officer of the residency. They were accompanied by five horsemen of the residency escort and 27 riflemen. The riders, however, got far ahead of the infantry and fell into an ambush. Ranking fell, and Oliphant was killed trying to save him. Three men of the escort were killed or wounded.

The tribesmen intended to strike at Bushehr from two sides, from the south and the east, but the southern group was spotted before the eastern one had time to gather. At dusk the attackers assaulted the posts and were driven off. Another attack, early in the morning of 13 July, also failed, and the Tangistanis vanished.

The British response

The death of two officers decided a change in British policy. A few days later London and the Government of India resolved to demand redress from Persia and to occupy Bushehr. On 8 August British troops took over the administration of the town, and in mid-August a force of sailors and Indian infantry landed near Delvar and destroyed Rais Ali’s forts. The Tangistan tribes, however, fought on. Rais Ali himself was killed in a clash with the British at the beginning of September 1915. In Iran he is remembered as a hero of resistance to foreign domination, and the day of his death is marked as a day of struggle against British colonialism.