British occupy Bushehr

On 8 August 1915 the British occupied Bushehr, the main port of Persia on the Persian Gulf. A proclamation was posted in the town announcing that Great Britain was taking over the administration of the whole island of Bushehr, together with the town and port, and would hold it until it received satisfaction. Power was assumed by Major Arthur Prescott Trevor of the British Residency, as commandant of the military administration on behalf of the British government. The occupation of a neutral state was the reply to the attack of Tangestan tribes on the Residency on 12 July, in which two British officers were killed.

The satisfaction that never came

After the July attack the British demanded that the government in Tehran punish those responsible and pay compensation. Persia, however, had neither the troops nor the authority to impose order on the tribes of the south, and the government was at the time absorbed in its own crisis. According to the British official history, seeing that warnings and advice had no effect, the British government decided at the end of July to act on its own. Combined naval and military forces were to occupy the port and town of Bushehr until the British demands were met, and then to punish Delvar, a coastal village about 20 miles (more than 30 kilometres) south of the town, from which the leader of the attackers, Rais Ali, came.

The occupation of the town required no fighting. The core of the force was the Residency garrison, made up of soldiers of the 96th Berar Infantry. In August it was reinforced by a squadron of the 16th Cavalry and the 11th Rajputs, sent from Basra from the forces fighting in Mesopotamia. From the sea they were supported by ships under Captain Drury St. Aubyn Wake of the cruiser HMS Juno, who had just become Senior Naval Officer in the Persian Gulf. The proclamation explained that the British were acting “of necessity”, because the Persian government was unable to ensure order and security in Bushehr and its surroundings.

A town under foreign administration

Iranian historians describe the first days of the occupation as a flagrant violation of Persian neutrality. According to them the British disarmed the local gendarmerie, seized the Persian vessels lying in the port, including the small warship Mozaffari, and hoisted the British flag over the governor’s residence. A dozen or so inhabitants who protested against the occupation are said to have been arrested and deported to India. From 15 August the post office in Bushehr sold Persian stamps bearing the portrait of Ahmad Shah, overprinted in English “Bushire Under British Occupation”. Few things showed so plainly how little Tehran’s authority over its own coast counted for.

The punitive expedition and its sequel

Immediately after taking the town the British prepared an expedition against Delvar. Ships carrying a detachment of the 96th under Major C. E. H. Wintle and sailors came up to the village on 10 August, but because of strong winds the landing succeeded only on 13 August, under fire from the Tangestanis. Over the following days the British took and blew up the fort, burned the village and withdrew to Bushehr. This did not pacify the tribes. Rais Ali was killed in a clash with the British at the beginning of September, and on 9 September several hundred Tangestanis attacked the defences of Bushehr and were driven off.

The occupation of Bushehr also gave an argument to German agents, who were persuading the Persians that it was the Entente, not Germany, that was trampling on their independence. According to some sources the British handed the administration of the town back to the Persians in mid-October 1915, but their troops remained in Bushehr, and in Iran Rais Ali is still regarded as a hero of resistance to foreign oppression.