Mutiny in Singapore

On the afternoon of 15 February 1915, at Alexandra Barracks in Singapore, roughly half the soldiers of the 5th Light Infantry of the British Indian Army mutinied. The mutineers killed several officers, attacked the camp of interned Germans and killed Europeans and local residents they met in the streets and on the roads. To put down the mutiny the British had to call for help from sailors of French, Russian and Japanese warships. According to various counts, between 36 and more than 40 soldiers and civilians were killed.

A Muslim regiment

Singapore was the capital of the British colony of the Straits Settlements and one of the most important ports of the Empire. In the autumn of 1914 the British battalion of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry stationed there sailed for France. It was replaced by the 5th Light Infantry, brought over from India. The regiment numbered about 800 sepoys and consisted entirely of Muslims, mainly Ranghars (Muslims of Rajput descent) and Pathans. The regiment was riven by internal quarrels, and its commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel E. V. Martin, had no authority either among the men or among the officers.

From the moment the Ottoman Empire entered the war and the Sultan proclaimed jihad against the Entente, unrest grew among Muslim soldiers in the Indian Army. In Singapore it was stoked by local Muslims, above all a Gujarati merchant, Kassim Mansur, who entertained sepoys at his house, and the imam Nur Alam Shah, who had links with the Indian independence movement. Rumours circulated among the soldiers that the regiment would be sent to fight the Turks, their fellow Muslims. On 27 January 1915 it was announced that the regiment would be transferred to Hong Kong. Many sepoys, however, did not believe in this destination.

The outbreak

On the morning of 15 February the commander of the troops in Singapore took the regiment’s farewell parade. He praised the soldiers and mentioned their departure the next day, but did not say where they would sail. A few hours later, at about 3 p.m., a shot was fired at Alexandra Barracks, giving the signal for the mutiny. Four companies made up of Ranghars took up arms. The Pathan companies for the most part did not join the mutiny, and many of their men scattered across the surrounding area.

The mutineers killed two British officers of the regiment. About a hundred of them set off for the nearby camp at Tanglin, where more than 300 interned Germans were held, among them sailors from the cruiser Emden. They killed ten British guards, three soldiers of the Sultan of Johor’s forces and one of the internees. They expected the Germans to join the mutiny, but most of them refused. Several dozen took advantage of the confusion to escape. Other groups of sepoys killed Europeans they met on the roads, around Keppel Harbour and in Pasir Panjang, as well as several Chinese and Malays. Some of the mutineers surrounded Lieutenant-Colonel Martin’s bungalow. He held out there until morning with a small party of volunteers.

The moment was exceptionally unfavourable for the British. Chinese New Year celebrations were under way, and the Chinese members of the town’s volunteer defence units were on leave. There were almost no regular British troops in Singapore. The authorities declared martial law and gathered whoever they could: sailors from the sloop HMS Cadmus lying in the harbour, volunteers of the Singapore Volunteer Corps and the Malay States Volunteer Rifles, and a small detachment of Sikhs.

Allied help

At the British call, Allied warships quickly arrived at Singapore. On 17 February the French cruiser Montcalm arrived, followed by the Russian auxiliary cruiser Orel and the Japanese cruisers Otowa and Tsushima. Their landing parties took part in the hunt for the mutineers. Help also came from Sultan Ibrahim of Johor, who came to Singapore with his soldiers. Many sepoys who had crossed the strait to the mainland surrendered in Johor. By the evening of 17 February the British already held 432 mutineers. On 20 February companies of a British Territorial battalion arrived from Rangoon, and by then the mutiny had essentially been suppressed. Individual fugitives were still being caught for several days.

Courts martial and executions

The mutiny ended in severe reprisals. More than 200 sepoys were tried by courts martial. Most were convicted. Forty-seven of them were publicly shot outside the walls of Outram Prison. The executions drew crowds of spectators. One of them, in March, was watched according to one study by about 6,000 people, and another, according to press reports from the end of March, by more than 15,000. Sixty-four of the condemned were transported for life, and 73 were sentenced to terms of 7 to 20 years’ imprisonment. Kassim Mansur was also sentenced to death. Nur Alam Shah, although considered one of the instigators of the mutiny, was not brought to trial, so as not to provoke the colony’s Muslim population.

A court of inquiry, which sat from 23 February to May 1915, pointed to bad relations within the regiment and the weakness of its command, but was unable to establish the causes of the mutiny conclusively. The remaining nearly 600 soldiers of the regiment were sent in July 1915 to fight in Kamerun, and then in German East Africa. The Singapore mutiny was one of the most serious outbreaks among Muslim soldiers of the Indian Army during the war. It showed that the Sultan’s call to jihad had not gone unheard, and from then on the British authorities watched the mood in Indian regiments and the activity of Indian independence organisations in Asia much more closely.