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{{Short description|Recipient of the Victoria Cross}}
{{EngvarB|date=October 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2017}}
{{Infobox military person
|name= Sir Charles John Melliss
|image= CharlesJohnMelliss.jpg
|image_size=
|alt=
|caption=
|nickname=
|birth_date= {{birth date|df=yes|1862|09|12}}
|birth_place= [[Mhow]], British India
|death_date= {{death date and age|df=yes|1936|6|6|1862|9|12}}
|death_place= [[Brockenhurst]], Kent, England
|placeofburial= St. Peter's Churchyard, [[Frimley]], Surrey
|allegiance= United Kingdom
|branch= [[British Indian Army]]
|serviceyears=
|rank= [[Major-general (United Kingdom)|Major General]]
|unit= [[Indian Staff Corps]]
|commands= [[53rd Sikhs (Frontier Force)|53rd Sikhs]] (1906–10)
|battles= [[Tirah Campaign]] [[War of the Golden Stool]] [[First World War]]
|awards= [[Victoria Cross]] [[Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath]] [[Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George]] [[Order of the Brilliant Star of Zanzibar]] [[Croix de guerre 1914–1918 (France)|Croix de guerre]] (France)

|laterwork=
|relations=
}}
[[Major-general (United Kingdom)|Major General]] '''Sir Charles John Melliss''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|VC|KCB|KCMG}} (12 September 1862 – 6 June 1936) was a [[British Army]] officer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and a recipient of the [[Victoria Cross]], the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] forces. A staff officer in the [[Mesopotamian Campaign]] of the [[First World War]], he was captured after the [[Siege of Kut]].

==Early life==
Melliss was born in [[Mhow]], [[British India]], on 12 September 1862, the son of Lieutenant General George Julius Mellis of the [[Indian Staff Corps]]. He was educated at [[Wellington College, Berkshire]] and the [[Royal Military College, Sandhurst]], being commissioned into the [[East Yorkshire Regiment]] in September 1882.

==Military career==
Melliss transferred to the [[Indian Army]] in 1884. He served in East Africa 1895–96 and on the [[Military history of the North-West Frontier|North-West Frontier of India]] 1897–98. This was followed by operations in the Kurram Valley in Tirah 1897–98. He served with the North Nigeria Regiment in West Africa 1898–1902, and in [[Ashanti Empire|Ashanti]] during 1900, including at the relief of Kumassi in the [[War of the Golden Stool]]. He was wounded four times during these operations, once severely. It was for his actions while attached to the [[West African Frontier Force]] during the [[Third Ashanti Expedition]] that Mellis was to receive the [[Victoria Cross]]. On 30 September 1900 at Obassa, Ashanti, Captain Melliss gathered together a party of men and charged into the bush at the head of them into the thick of the enemy. Although wounded in a hand-to-hand encounter, his bold rush caused panic among the enemy who were at the same time charged by the Sikhs.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27266|date=15 October 1901 |page=307}}</ref>
[[File:Charles John Melliss, VC, Ashanti Campaign.jpg|thumb|Charles John Melliss, Ashanti Campaign]]

Meliss was promoted [[Major (British Army)|major]] on 10 July 1901,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27362 |date=4 October 1901 |page=6487}}</ref> and for the same action that won him the Victoria Cross he was also awarded the [[Brevet (military)|brevet]] rank of [[Lieutenant colonel (British Army and Royal Marines)|lieutenant colonel]] on the following day.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27365 |date=15 October 1901 |page=6713}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|title=MELLISS, Lieut.-Col. Charles John|magazine=Who's Who|year=1907|volume= 59|page=1208|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yEcuAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1208}}</ref> He vacated his appointment as second in command of the Northern Nigeria Forces in late 1902, and reverted to the Indian army, where he was posted to the [[1st Bombay Grenadiers]].<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Naval & Military intelligence |date=6 November 1902 |page=9 |issue=36918}}</ref> The regiment served in East Africa 1902–04, where he was badly mauled by a lion in 1903. He commanded the [[53rd Sikhs (Frontier Force)]] 1906–10 and served on the North West Frontier operations (Zakka Khel) of 1908. He was promoted major general on 19 March 1912.

===First World War===
Major General Melliss was attached to the [[6th (Poona) Division]] of the [[British Indian Army]]<ref>{{Lives of WWI | id= 3004949 | name= Charles John Mellis }}</ref> as it moved into what was then the Ottoman province of [[Basra Province, Ottoman Empire|Basra]] in 1914. In April 1915, he was instrumental in the British victory at [[Battle of Shaiba|Shaiba]].<ref>Mousley, Edward Opotiki "The Secrets of a Kuttite" (1921) p. 15</ref> Melliss also fought in the [[Battle of Ctesiphon (1915)|Battle of Ctesiphon]],<ref>Braddon, Russell "The Siege" (1969) p. 92-94</ref> the furthest up the [[Tigris]] that the 6th Division would advance.

After Ctesiphon, [[Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend|General Townshend]], commander of the 6th Division, ordered a retreat back down the Tigris. Ottoman forces pursued the division to [[Kut-al-Amara]], where, on 7 December 1915, Townshend ordered it to dig in and await relief. Melliss fell ill during the siege;<ref>Mousley, Edward Opotiki "The Secrets of a Kuttite" (1921) p. 156</ref> he was in hospital when Townsend surrendered on 29 April 1916.

Transported upriver to Baghdad by steamship, Melliss remained in hospital and unable to travel as the survivors of the 6th Division were marched north toward [[Anatolia Province, Ottoman Empire|Anatolia]]. When Melliss was well enough to travel, he followed the same route north. As he was a general, Melliss was allowed a travelling party and better than average supplies. Along the way, they encountered dead and dying enlisted men who had fallen behind one of the columns of British and Indian prisoners.<ref>Mousley, Edward Opotiki "The Secrets of a Kuttite" (1921) p. 180-181</ref> Melliss took any survivors he found with him; at each stop he insisted that the men he had rescued from the desert be put into hospital.<ref>Braddon, Russell "The Siege" (1969) p. 285-286</ref>

Melliss spent his captivity at Broussa in northwestern Anatolia. While there, he repeatedly wrote letters to [[Enver Pasha]] detailing the sad state of the enlisted prisoners and demanding better treatment. Most of the British other ranks (1,755 out of 2,592)<ref>Braddon, Russell "The Siege" (1969) p. 327</ref> captured at Kut-al-Amara died in captivity.

==Later life==


He retired from the Indian Army 24 February 1920. He was appointed Colonel of his old regiment, the 53rd Sikhs, Frontier Force on 31 May 1921, a position he held until November 1934.<ref>Indian Army List Supplement January 1930</ref><ref>January 1936 Indian Army List</ref>

Melliss is buried at St. Peter's Churchyard, [[Frimley]], Surrey, England. His VC is held by [[Wellington College, Berkshire|Wellington College]].

==Family==
Mellis married in 1901 Kathleen Walker, youngest daughter of General J. M. Walker.<ref>Who's Who 1916</ref><ref>Wellington College Register 1859–1933</ref><ref>January 1919 Indian Army List</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Melliss, Charles John}}
[[Category:British recipients of the Victoria Cross]]
[[Category:British Indian Army generals]]
[[Category:People educated at Wellington College, Berkshire]]
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath]]
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George]]
[[Category:1862 births]]
[[Category:1936 deaths]]
[[Category:Indian Staff Corps officers]]
[[Category:World War I prisoners of war held by the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:British World War I prisoners of war]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the War of the Golden Stool]]
[[Category:East Yorkshire Regiment officers]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the Tirah campaign]]
[[Category:Royal West African Frontier Force officers]]
[[Category:Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst]]

Charles Melliss - Revision history

Bot at 17:29, 27 February 2022