EduardoVasey1 at 11:44, 30 October 2025

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{{Short description|British Indian Army general}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}
{{Infobox military person
| honorific_prefix = [[General (United Kingdom)|General]]
| name = Sir Arthur Power Palmer
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|GCB|GCIE}}
| image = General Sir Arthur Power Palmer (cropped).jpg
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1840|06|25|df=yes}}
| death_date = {{death-date and age|28 February 1904|25 June 1840}}
| placeofburial_label =
| placeofburial = [[Brompton Cemetery]]
| birth_place = Kurubul, [[India]]
| death_place = [[London]], [[United Kingdom]]
| placeofburial_coordinates = 
| nickname =
| allegiance = {{flagicon|United Kingdom}} [[United Kingdom]]
| branch = {{army|British India|23px}}
| serviceyears = 1857–1902
| rank = [[General (United Kingdom)|General]]
| unit =
| commands = [[Indian Army]]
| battles = [[Tirah Campaign]]
| awards = [[Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath]]<br>[[Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire]]
| relations =
| laterwork =
}}
[[General (United Kingdom)|General]] '''Sir Arthur Power Palmer''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|GCB|GCIE}} (25 June 1840 – 28 February 1904) was [[Commander-in-Chief, India]] between March 1900 and December 1902.

==Military career==
Power Palmer was born in June 1840, at Karnaul ([[Karnal]]), [[India]], the son of Nicholas Palmer and Rebecca Carter Barrett.<ref>British Library IOR Ref No. N/1/56f.124, and L/MIL/9/240f.325</ref> Educated at [[Cheltenham College]], he was [[Officer (armed forces)|commissioned]] into the [[5th Light Infantry|5th Bengal Light Infantry]] in 1857.<ref name=odnb>[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/35368 Arthur Power Palmer at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]</ref> He took part in subduing the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857|Indian Mutiny]] in 1857.<ref name=odnb/>

In 1880, he was appointed assistant adjutant-general in [[Bengal]] and in 1885 was [[commander]] of the [[4th Duke of Cambridge's Own Hodson's Horse|9th Bengal Cavalry]] for the [[Suakin Expedition]].<ref name=odnb/> In 1897 he took part in the [[Tirah Campaign]].<ref name=odnb/> He was also [[General Officer Commanding]] 2nd Division during the action at Chagru Kotal.<ref name=odnb/>

In January 1898, he became commander-in-chief [[Northern Command (India)|Punjab Command]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1898/01/17/102546796.pdf |title=New commander in India; General Sir Arthur Power Palmer Succeeds General Sir William Lockhart|work=The New York Times|date=17 January 1898|access-date=18 February 2018}}</ref> and on 19 March 1900 he became commander-in-chief of India after the sudden death of [[William Lockhart (Indian Army officer)|Sir William Lockhart]],<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27299 |date=26 March 1901 |page=2114}}</ref> holding this post for two and a half years.<ref name=odnb/>

In a farewell dinner held at [[Simla]] in late October 1902, the Viceroy, [[George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston|Lord Curzon]] said the following about their relationship:<ref>Quoted in {{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Latest Intelligence|date=18 October 1902 |page=7 |issue=36902}}</ref>
{{blockquote|I believe an impression prevails in outside circles that either the Commander-in-Chief in India leads the viceroy by the nose, or, more rarely, the Viceroy leads the Commander-in-Chief. But there is a third alternative, which, after all, is more likely, and which my experience of two Commanders-in-Chief leads me unhesitatingly to endorse. It is that neither party is ahead of the other, but both are abreast.
I am confident that Sir A. Power Palmer will support me when I say that this has been the happy and unbroken nature of our collaboration.

(Lord Curzon would later clash with Palmer's successor, [[Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener|Lord Kitchener]], and resign as a result.)}}

Palmer returned to the United Kingdom in December 1902, and was received in audience by King [[Edward VII]] in January 1903, when he was invested with the insignia of a Knight Grand Cross of the Indian Empire (GCIE),<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Court Circular |date=17 January 1903 |page=8 |issue=36980}}</ref> which he had received in the [[1901 Birthday Honours]]. He retired from the Army the same year. He died in [[London]] in 1904 and is buried at [[Brompton Cemetery]].<ref name=odnb/>

==Honours==
* KCB: [[Order of the Bath|Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath]]
* GCB: [[Order of the Bath|Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath]]
* GCIE: [[Order of the Indian Empire|Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire]] – 9 November 1901 - King's birthday Honours<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27374 |date=9 November 1901 |page=7287 |supp=y}}</ref>

==Family==
Palmer married in 1867 Julia Helen Aylmer née Harris (1848–1896)<ref>British Library IOR Ref No. N/1/121/92</ref> who died in October 1896 and is buried at the [[Old Christian Cemetery, Abbottabad]],<ref>British Library IOR Ref No. N/1/254/225</ref> [[Pakistan]]. They had a daughter:
* Norah Blanche Aylmer Palmer (1872–?) who married Major Gerard Beechey Howard Rice (1865–?).

He remarried in 1898 Constance Gabrielle Richardson née Shaw (1864–1912), widow of Walter Milton Roberts. They had two daughters:
*Celia de Courcy Power-Palmer (1902–1973)
*Frances Gabrielle Power-Palmer (c. 1903 – 1987).<ref name=odnb/>
Their mother died in 1912, whereupon they were informally adopted by [[Horace Smith-Dorrien]] and his wife Olive, whose mother was their father's stepsister.<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=c8ZvCwAAQBAJ&pg=PP154|title=Smith-Dorrien |first= Brigadier Colin R. |last=Ballard |year=2015|publisher=Verdun Press|isbn=978-1786255228}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* ''Who Was Who 1897–1916'' p. 545

==External links==
* {{webarchive |url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20011125052626/http://www.s-asian.cam.ac.uk/handlist_o.htm |title=Papers of Sir Ralph Oakden |date=2001-11-25}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-mil}}
{{succession box | title=[[Commander-in-Chief, India]] | before=[[William Lockhart (Indian Army officer)|Sir William Lockhart]] | after=[[Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener|Lord Kitchener]] | years=1900–1902}}
{{s-end}}

{{Commander-in-Chief, India}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Power Palmer, Arthur}}
[[Category:1840 births]]
[[Category:1904 deaths]]
[[Category:People educated at Cheltenham College]]
[[Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath]]
[[Category:Knights Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire]]
[[Category:British Commanders-in-Chief of India]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the Indian Rebellion of 1857]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the Tirah campaign]]
[[Category:British Indian Army generals]]
[[Category:Burials at Brompton Cemetery]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the Abyssinian War]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the Mahdist War]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the Second Anglo-Afghan War]]
[[Category:Members of the Council of the Governor General of India]]
[[Category:20th-century British military personnel]]

Arthur Power Palmer - Revision history

EduardoVasey1 at 11:44, 30 October 2025