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{{Short description|British political officer in India (1882–1967)}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Frederick Marshman Bailey
|image = File:Bailey F M 1934.jpg
|caption = F. M. Bailey, 1934
|birth_date = 3 February 1882
|birth_place = [[Lahore]], [[British Raj|British India]]
|spouse =
|death_date = 17 April 1967 (aged 85)
|death_place = [[Stiffkey]], [[Norfolk]], [[England]]
|nationality = [[United Kingdom|British]]
|alma_mater = [[Royal Military College, Sandhurst]]
|occupation = [[British Army]] officer, [[List of explorers|explorer]], [[Espionage|spy]], [[Botany|botanist]] and [[Zoology|zoologist]]
|awards = [[Order of the Indian Empire]]<br>[[Royal Geographical Society|Fellow of Royal Geographical Society]]<br>[[MacGregor Medal]]
}}
{{distinguish|Frederick Manson Bailey}}
'''Frederick Marshman Bailey''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CIE|FRGS}} (3 February 1882, [[Lahore]], [[British Raj|British India]] – 17 April 1967, [[Stiffkey]], [[Norfolk]]) was a British [[Political officer (British Empire)|political officer]] and one of the last protagonists of ''[[The Great Game]].''<ref>Anon, [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03068376708731997?journalCode=raaf19 Obituary: Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Marshman Bailey, C.I.E.], ''Journal of The Royal Central Asian Society'', Volume 54, 1967, Issue 2, pp. 223-225. Retrieved 9 November 201.</ref> His expeditions in [[Tibet]] and [[Assam Himalaya]] gave him many opportunities to pursue his hobbies of [[photography]], [[butterfly collecting]], and [[trophy hunting]] in the high Tibetan region. Over 2000 of his bird specimens were presented to the [[Natural History Museum, London|Natural History Museum]],<ref>Warr, F. E. 1996. Manuscripts and Drawings in the ornithology and Rothschild libraries of The Natural History Museum at Tring. BOC. (BMNH 1938 7-15)</ref> although his personal collection is now held in the [[American Museum of Natural History]], New York.<ref name=geogobit>Anon. (1967) Obituary: Lt.-Col. F. M. Bailey, C. I. E. 1882-1967. The Geographical Journal 133: 427-428.</ref> His papers and extensive photograph collections are held in the [[British Library]], London.<ref>Papers at Mss Eur F157, photographs at Photo 1083.</ref>

==Early life==
[[File:Drummond Place 1-10, Edinburgh.JPG|thumb|300px|Drummond Place, Edinburgh]]
Born in [[Lahore]], India on 3 February 1882, Bailey was the son of [[Frederick Bailey (forester)|Lt Col Frederick Bailey]] of the [[Royal Engineers]] of the [[British Army]], Head of the Indian Forestry Service, and his wife, Florence Agnes Marshman.<ref>Loneliness and Time: The Story of British Travel Writing, by Mark Cocker</ref>
The younger Bailey was usually called "Eric".<ref>ODNB: Frederick Marshman Bailey</ref> His family returned to Britain in 1890 and they lived at 7 Drummond Place in [[New Town, Edinburgh|Edinburgh's Second New Town]]. He was educated nearby at [[Edinburgh Academy]].

He later studied at [[Wellington College, Berkshire|Wellington College]] (1895-1899) and the [[Royal Military College, Sandhurst]], from where he was commissioned onto the Unattached List of the [[British Indian Army|Indian Army]] on 28 July 1900. He was admitted to the Indian Army on 26 October 1901 and was attached to the [[17th Bengal Lancers]]. He was promoted to lieutenant on 28 October 1902 and transferred to the [[32nd Sikh Pioneers]] on 1 March 1903.<ref name=geogobit/> He obtained a transfer to the Foreign and Political Department on 24 January 1906. During a mission in [[Sikhim]], he began to study [[Standard Tibetan|Tibetan]] and became so proficient that he accompanied [[Francis Younghusband]] in his [[British expedition to Tibet|1904 invasion of Tibet]]. He then served as the British Trade Agent in [[Gyantse]] (Tibet) at intervals between December 1905 and December 1909.

==Explorer==
[[File:1913 North-Eastern Frontier and Tibet by Morshead and Bailey from RE Journal 1921.jpg|thumb|right|Map of the 1913 expedition to Tibet]]
[[File:Himalayan Blue Poppy (3638448884).jpg|thumb|right|Himalayan Blue Poppy (Meconopsis betonicifolia) (syn. Meconopsis baileyi)]]

He later travelled in unknown parts of [[China]] and Tibet, was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society]] in October 1906 (seconded by his father, Colonel F Bailey, who had joined the society in 1880<ref name=geogobit/>) and eventually earned the [[Patron's Medal]] from the [[Royal Geographical Society]] for his discoveries. He also contributed notes on big game to the Journal of the [[Bombay Natural History Society]]. He was promoted Captain 28 July 1908 and served during the operations in the Abor Country from 1911 to 1912.

Bailey transferred himself from the Indian Army to the Political Department to get appointments on the Tibetan frontier. In 1911, he crossed China and southern Tibet to Assam in a failed attempt to reach the 150 ft falls on the [[Yarlung Tsangpo]], which had been reported by the Indian [[pundit (explorer)|pundit]] [[Kinthup]].<ref>Bailey, F.M. 1911</ref> In 1913 he made an [[Bailey–Morshead exploration of Tsangpo Gorge|unauthorised exploration]] to the [[Yarlung Tsangpo Canyon|Tsangpo Gorges]] with Captain [[Henry Morshead]] of the [[Survey of India]]. Morshead was later a surveyor for the initial [[1921 British Mount Everest reconnaissance expedition]], along with [[George Mallory]]. Their adventures led them to the Rong Chu Valley, a gorge on the Upper Tsangpo. It was in that valley that Bailey spotted a tall blue poppy at the margin of the forest and pressed it in his notebook, now called ''[[Meconopsis baileyi]]''. They reached Kintup's Falls at the monastery of Pemakochung and were greatly disappointed to find the falls to be about 30 ft.

In 1914, Bailey was honoured with the [[MacGregor Medal]] for "recces and surveys (with Capt. T.M. Morshead) and separately, Tsangpo valley, [[Dihang]] & [[Dibang River|Dibang]] valleys,1911- 12."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hamond|first=Major (Retd) Robert|date=October–December 1990|title=The MacGregor Memorial Medal 1889-1989|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.279749|journal=U.S.I Journal: The Journal of the United Service Institution of India|pages=471–479|issn=0041-770X|ref={{sfnref|Hamond, USI Journal|1990}}|via=archive.org}}</ref>

==First World War==
On 4 September 1914 Bailey was appointed as a captain with the 6th Reserve Regiment of Cavalry at Dublin. He served on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]] in March to April 1915 with the [[34th Sikh Pioneers]], and he was shot in the arm. He was serving in the [[Indian Expeditionary Forces]] as one of the few [[Urdu]]-speaking officers on the front. When his wound continued to worsen, he returned to England, but he later joined the fight again at the [[Battle of Gallipoli]] in September 1915. He served with the 5th Gurkhas, and he was wounded twice more.

He was appointed a [[Companion of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire]] on 1 January 1915<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=29024 |date=1 January 1915 |supp=y |page=3}}</ref> and was transferred to the Supernumerary List on 24 December 1915.

He was sent back to India, where he served as [[political officer (British Empire)|Political Officer]] on the North-West Frontier during the Mohmand Operations January 1916 to March 1917.

In December 1917, he was sent to South Persia, where he served until February 1918 as a political officer and was then in Chinese and Russian Turkistan from 1918 to 1920.

He was a temporary lieutenant-colonel from 1 April 1918 to 30 May 1920.

==Mission to Tashkent==
One of Bailey's more well-known adventures occurred in 1918, when he travelled to [[Tashkent]] in [[Central Asia]] on a mission to discover the intentions of the new [[Bolshevik]] government, specifically in relation to India. During the mission, he also shadowed [[Raja Mahendra Pratap]], an Indian nationalist who had established the [[Provisional Government of India]] in Kabul in 1915. Pratap was liaising with Germany and Bolshevik authorities for a joint Soviet-German assault into India through Afghanistan.<ref name=Bailey225>{{Harvnb|Bailey|Hopkirk|2002|pp=224–227}}</ref> It was then that the first plans for the Soviet ''[[Kalmyk Project]]'' was first considered. Bailey eventually had to flee for his life from the city and escaped only by taking on the guise of an Austrian prisoner-of-war<ref>Bailey, F. M., [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1781557 "A Visit to Bokhara in 1919"], ''The Geographical Journal'' > Vol. 57, No. 2 (Feb., 1921), pp. 75–87.</ref> and joining the [[Cheka]] with an assignment to find a rogue British agent, himself. Upon his return to England, he was a national hero. Bailey later recorded his exploits in his book ''Mission to Tashkent''.

==Later life==
[[File:Miru Gyalwa, Mrs Bailey, Major Vance, Colonel Bailey.jpg|thumb|Miru Gyalwa, Mrs Bailey, Major Vance, Colonel Bailey, 1927 in Tibet|alt=|300x300px]]
[[File:FM Bailey.jpg|thumb|In the Mishmi Hills]]
In 1921 Bailey married Hon. Irma, daughter of [[Baron Cozens-Hardy]].

He was the Political Officer for Sikkim and Tibet, stationed in Gangtok (Sikkim) from June 1921 to October 1928, and he made annual visits to Tibet to inspect the Gyantse Trade Agency and visited Lhasa from 16 July to 16 August 1924, accompanied by the Medical Officer, Major J. Hislop IMS.

He helped [[Frank Kingdon-Ward]] and Lord Cawdor in 1924 when he was a [[Political officer (British Empire)|Political Officer]] in Gangtok, Sikkim. Bailey arranged passports and encouraged them to search the 40 mi unexplored gap of the river to solve the ''riddles of the Tsangpo Gorges''. Kingdon-Ward wrote a book by the same name documenting that expedition.

He was among the earliest to import the [[Lhasa Apso]] breed of dog into Britain.<ref>Bailey, Eric (1937) Dogs from the Roof of the World : Many unusual Breeds Found in Tibet the Strange Land That Lies in the Clouds. American Kennel Gazette 25(3) {{cite web |url=http://www.lhasa-apso.org/articles/bailey.htm |title=The AMERICAN KENNEL GAZETTE |accessdate=2006-12-12 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061108033658/http://www.lhasa-apso.org/articles/bailey.htm |archivedate=8 November 2006}}</ref> He was in contact with others interested in Central Asia, including [[Richard Meinertzhagen]].

He was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel 28 July 1926.

He was the Resident at Baroda, Central India from 1930 to 32 and was the Resident in Kashmir in 1932 to 1933.

In February 1935, he was appointed His Majesty's [[Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary]] at Kathmandu.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=34133 |date=15 February 1935 |page=1091}}</ref> He held this appointment until retiring in 1938.

He retired from the Indian Army on 3 February 1937 and, during the Second World War, served as a King's Messenger to Central and South America between 1942 and 1943.

==Works==
*Bailey, F. M. "From the outposts: A quiet day in Tibet", in: ''[[Blackwood's Magazine]]'', 181;1144:270-5
* {{cite journal |last1=Bailey |first1=F. M. |title=Exploration on the Tsangpo or upper Brahmaputra |journal=Scottish Geographical Magazine |volume=30 |issue=11 |year=1914 |pages=561–582 |doi=10.1080/00369221408734154|url=https://zenodo.org/record/2450287 }}
*Bailey, F. M. ''[https://archive.org/details/dli.pahar.2833 China-Tibet-Assam: A Journey, 1911]'' (London: Cape, 1945)
*Bailey F. M. ''[https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20211275 Mission to Tashkent]'' (London: Jonathan Cape, 1946; republished by Oxford University Press, 1992 and 2002, [[Peter Hopkirk]], ed.)
*Bailey, F. M. ''[https://archive.org/details/dli.pahar.3101 No Passport to Tibet]'' (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1957)

==Legacy==
Bailey is commemorated in the scientific names of three species: a Tibetan snake (''[[Thermophis baileyi]]'');<ref>Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0135-5}}. ("Bailey, F. M.", p. 14).</ref> a species of mammal, the red goral (''[[Red goral|Naemorhedus baileyi]]'');<ref name=":0">Pocock R. I. (1914) Description of a new species of goral (''Naemorhedus'') shot by Captain F. M. Bailey.</ref> and the renowned Himalayan blue poppy (''[[Meconopsis baileyi]]'').<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://hortophile.wordpress.com/2012/06/14/meconopsis-baileyi-himalayan-blue-poppy/.|title=Meconopsis baileyi – Himalayan Blue Poppy|date=14 June 2012}}</ref>

==See also==
* ''London Gazette''
* ''Indian Army List'' (various dates)
* ''Wellington College Register''
* ''The Times''

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Anon. [https://www.claudearpi.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/1967-Bailey-Obtuary.pdf "Obituaries: Lt.-Col; Frederick Marshman Bailey, C.I.E., 1882-1967"]. ''Ibis'', 1967:615-616
* Anon. [https://www.nytimes.com/1967/04/20/archives/frederick-bailey-world-war-i-spy-british-colonel-dies-at-85-an.html "Frederick Bailey, World War I Spy; British Colonel Dies at 85 --An Explorer in Tibet"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', 20 April 1967.
*Brysac, Shareen Blair and Karl E. Meyer. ''Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asia''. (Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint Press, 1999).
*Cocker, Mark. [https://archive.org/details/lonelinesstimest00cock_0 ''Loneliness and Time: The Story of British Travel Writing'']. (London: Secker & Warburg, 1992; New York: Pantheon Books, 1992.).
*Hopkirk, Peter. ''Setting the East Ablaze: Lenin's Dream of an Empire in Asia''. (London: Kodansha International, 1984).
*McKay, Alex. ''[https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/28905/1/10673084.pdf Tibet and the British Raj: The Frontier Cadre 1904-1947]'' (London: [[SOAS University of London|School of African and Oriental Studies]], 1997; Richmond, Curzon Press, 1997)
*[[Giles Milton|Milton, Giles]]. ''Russian Roulette: How British Spies Thwarted Lenin's Global Plot''. Sceptre, 2013. {{ISBN|978 1 444 73702 8}}
*Myers, Alex. [https://explorersweb.com/2021/07/12/eccentric-explorers-frederick-marshman-bailey/ Eccentric Explorers: Frederick Marshman Bailey], explorersweb.com.
*Riscoe, V.S. [https://www.himalayanclub.org/hj/28/20/obituary-12/ "Obituary: Col. F. M. Bailey, C.I.E."], ''[[The Himalayan Journal]]'', 28 (1968)
*Swinson, Arthur. ''Beyond the Frontiers. The Biography of Colonel F.M. Bailey Explorer and Special Agent'' (London: Hutchinson of London, 1971)
*Wolff, Jo. [https://www.rsgs.org/blog/escape-from-tashkent1 "Escape from Tashkent"], 27 February 2018, rsgs.org.
*Wolff, Jo. [https://rsgsexplorers.com/2015/09/21/the-riddle-of-the-tsangpo-gorge-part-two/ "The Riddle of the Tsangpo Gorge – Part Two"], rsgs.org

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Frederick Marshman Bailey}}
* {{FadedPage|id=Bailey, Frederick Marshman|name=Frederick Marshman Bailey|author=yes}}
* [https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F45959 Bailey, Frederick Marshman, (1882-1967), Lieutenant Colonel, Lepidopterist] at [[The National Archives (United Kingdom)|National Archives]]
* [http://www.roll-of-honour.com/Norfolk/Wiveton.html Memorial plaque at Wiveton church]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bailey, Frederick Markham}}
[[Category:1882 births]]
[[Category:1967 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century British zoologists]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Nepal]]
[[Category:British Indian Army officers]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the British expedition to Tibet]]
[[Category:British spies against the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire]]
[[Category:English lepidopterists]]
[[Category:Explorers of the Himalayas]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society]]
[[Category:Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst]]
[[Category:Indian Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Lahore]]
[[Category:People educated at Edinburgh Academy]]
[[Category:Recipients of the MacGregor Medal]]

Frederick Marshman Bailey - Revision history

Bot at 14:38, 27 November 2022