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{{Short description|British military officer and administrator (1859–1929)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix = [[Lieutenant Colonel (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant Colonel]]
| name = Granville Henry Loch
| native_name = 
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| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CIE}}
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| office = Superintendent of the Lushai Hills
| status = 
| term_start = 1905
| term_end = 1906
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| predecessor = W.N. Kennedy
| successor = F.C. Henniker
| office2 = Commandant of the Lushai Hills Military Police
| term_start2 = 1898
| term_end2 = 1914
| predecessor2 = R.H. Sneyd Hutchinson, [[Imperial Police|IP]] (South Lushai Hills) Capt. G.H. Loch (North Lushai Hills)
| successor2 = Capt. H.C. Nicolay [[2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles (The Sirmoor Rifles)|2nd Gurkha Rifles]]
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| birth_date = {{Birth date|1859|1|26}}
| birth_place = [[St George Hanover Square]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1929|12|30|1859|1|26}}
| death_place = [[London]], England
| death_cause = 
| relations = William Adam Loch (Father) Sophia Loch (b. Bates, Mother)
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| known_for = Founder of Fort Aijal, (now [[Aizawl]])
| awards = [[Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire]]
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| allegiance = [[United Kingdom]]
| branch = [[British Indian Army|Indian Army]]
| service_years = 1878-1914
| rank = [[Lieutenant Colonel (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant Colonel]]
| unit = [[3rd Gorkha Rifles]] [[Assam Rifles|Lushai Hills Military Police]]
| commands =
| battles = [[Second Anglo-Afghan War]] [[Chin-Lushai Expedition]] [[Lushai Rising]]
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[[Lieutenant Colonel (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant Colonel]] '''Granville Henry Loch''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CIE}} ({{langx|lus|Mandingputara}},{{sfn|Chaltuahkhuma|1987}} 26 January 1859 – 30 December 1929) also known as '''G.H. Loch''', was an [[British Indian Army|Indian Army]] officer and administrator. He served as the [[Commandant]] of the [[Assam Rifles|North Lushai Hills Military Police Battalion]] from 1891 to 1898 and the [[Assam Rifles|Lushai Hills Military Police Battalion]] from 1898 to 1914, while also holding additional charge as Political Officer of the North Lushai Hills in 1894 and the Superintendent of the Lushai Hills from 1905 to 1906. He is credited with the expansion and development of Fort Aijal, which would become the city of [[Aizawl]].<ref>{{cite web |date=5 August 2022|title=BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OFFICE, AIZAWL|url=https://gad.mizoram.gov.in/page/brief-history-of-dc-aizawl|access-date=13 March 2025|website=General Administration Department Mizoram|language=en}}</ref>

==Early life==
Loch was born on 26 January 1859 in [[St George Hanover Square]]. Among seven siblings, Loch was the second son of William Adam Loch and Sophia Brownrigg Loch. He had five sisters, namely Edith, Katherine, Sophy, Mary and Margaret, with two brothers, James and William.{{sfn|Geni}}

==Career==
Loch was commissioned in August 1878 and participated in the [[Second Anglo-Afghan War]]. He would continue on to serve in the Zhob Valley campaign of 1884. Later, Loch was assigned to the Shan States column and fought at Fort Stedman, receiving a medal with two clasps. Loch participated in the [[Chin-Lushai Expedition]] and pacified the Burmese frontier in 1895–1896. During the Chin-Lushai Expedition, Loch contributed and developed the city of Aizawl from the establishment of Fort Aijal.{{sfn|The Times|1930}}

Shortly the [[Battle of Ahmed Khel]], Loch who was attached to the [[3rd Gorkha Rifles]] and Ninth Gorkhas oversaw the construction of the Officer's Mess at [[Almora]]. The building was constructed by all ranks of the battalion under Loch's supervision.{{sfn|39 Gorkha Training Centre|2003|p=74}}

===Construction of Aizawl===
When the British decided to settle on the abandoned site that would become Fort Aijal, Loch was assigned to blast away boulders on the river between Changsil and Sairang. This would make the boats passable and able to open communications and logistics. After the [[Lushai Rising|Western Lushai Rising]] under [[Khalkam]] was subdued by [[Robert Blair McCabe|R.B. McCabe]], Fort Aijal was expanded under the volition of the commandant of the Lushai Hills military police which was Captain Granville Henry Loch. Loch alongside Mr Davies worked together to develop Aizawl. Loch developed masonry barracks for the military police. Loch was described by [[John Shakespear (British Army officer)|John Shakespear]] as having the inclination of an engineer. After a storm which destroyed the temporary jungle thatched housings, Loch became determined to engineer long term stable development of Fort Aijal and its surrounding buildings. When Davies questioned the necessity of such quality of building materials, Loch replied that even after ten years of service in [[Kohima]] there weren't any stone houses there yet. Loch took on the costs himself personally to build his own houses. The public works department further commented on his built house as "good and fit for issue". Loch was requested an estimate of the budget required to upgrade the buildings in and around Fort Aijal in a strictly necessary manner which became approved. Loch employed women during construction and relied on a Khasi contractor, Sahon Roy, to achieve these goals.{{sfn|Shakespear|1939}}

By 1897, Loch had built the personal bungalow of the assistant commandant of the Lushai Hills military police. Furthermore, police barracks and a hospital were established. During that year, the construction of a quarter guard and office headquarters was also in progress to be completed in the same year with an armourer's workshop under delay. When Loch was granted the check for his construction the costs of building had exceeded the budget. This was attributed due to the lack of consideration for terrain development in the hilly locations that affected building costs. The matter was not noticed by the Public Works Department until the completion of the quarter guard exceeded the budget by twice the original amount. The chief engineer became enraged upon the revelation and an order was placed on Loch to discontinue any further building around Aijal. As a result, the armourer's workshop was finished early to an acceptable standard under the Executive Engineer. John Shakespear sent a report to the government on the Public Works Department's incompetence in finishing the armourer's workshop, which became contracted to Loch, who finished it in a few months.{{sfn|Shakespear|1939}}

Loch had also added a [[Queen Victoria]] memorial porch to the Quarter Guard. Loch privately financed a bust of Queen Victoria to accomplish the memorial. After moving the married quarters from the bachelor barracks, the emptied space contained a knoll of land which Loch began to pave. Loch cut away parts of the eastern roads and levelled the knoll into a parade ground. The labour for the parade ground was found by sepoys while Loch gave out contracts. The canteen fund provided the money for the whole operation, which was produced by the sums the workers paid to satisfy the labourers. As a result, the government were only made to pay {{currency|1200|INR}} for the new parade ground. A range was also built by Sepoy Labour. The military police battalion, on Saturdays, was instructed to carry out eight-hour shifts in construction. Loch's battalion never had issues with the labour quotas for construction, as the excess manpower on Saturdays permitted little work per person. Regarding the Saturday shifts, Loch was recorded by Shakespear to jokingly state that he "was a good man". When Shakespear asked to elaborate, Loch explained that while the sepoys wished for rainy weather on Saturday, he prayed for dry weather and thus was favoured as a good man.{{sfn|Shakespear|1939}}

The construction of the Superintendent House was overseen by Shakespear's wife, who designed the building. Loch contributed to the construction by supplying his sepoys as labourers.{{sfn|Shakespear|1939}}

==Later life==
Granville Henry Loch was appointed [[Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire]] in 1901. He retired in 1914 and moved back to London. However the outbreak of [[World War One]] saw him placed in special service under the war office in the censorship branch. He was discharged in 1919. He died on 30 December 1929 in a nursing home in London.{{sfn|The Times|1930}}{{sfn|The Irish Catholic Herald|1930}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
===BMD===
*{{Cite web|url=https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=kxhIqNSIQaX4oXmY770UnQ&scan=1|title=Index entry|accessdate=3 February 2025|work=FreeBMD|publisher=ONS}}

===Books===
*{{cite book |last=Reid |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Reid (civil servant)|date=1942 |title=The Lushai Hills: culled from History of the frontier areas bordering on Assam from 1883-1941 |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.16551/page/n5/mode/2up |location=Calcutta |publisher=Firma KLM}}
*{{cite book |last1=Shakespear |first1=John|author-link=John Shakespear (British Army officer) |title=The Making of Aizawl |date=13 July 1939 |publisher=British Library |location=London |url=https://eap.bl.uk/archive-file/EAP454-20-2#?xywh=487%2C663%2C2179%2C2777&cv=12 |access-date=5 February 2025}}
*{{cite book |last1=Chaltuahkhuma |title=History of Mizoram |date=1987 |publisher=M.D.C and Sons |location=Aizawl |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.467312/page/n1/mode/2up |access-date=11 February 2025}}
*{{cite book |last1=39 Gorkha Training Centre |title=Third and Ninth Gorkhas |date=2003 |publisher=Lancer Publishers & Distributers |location=New Delhi |isbn=81-7062-290-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k9B5b-NGDhgC |access-date=14 March 2025}}

===News===
*{{cite news |last1=The Irish Cathlolic Herald |title=In Memoriam |work=The Irish Catholic Herald |issue=1870 |date=11 January 1930|ref = {{SfnRef|The Irish Catholic Herald|1930}} }}
*{{cite news |last1=The Times |title=Obituary: Lieutenant.Colonel Loch |work=The Times |issue=45399 |date=1 January 1930}}

==External links==
*{{cite web |last1=Geni |title=Granville Henry Loch |url=https://records.myheritagelibraryedition.com/research/record-40000-121613908/granville-henry-loch-in-geni-world-family-tree |website=MyHeritage |access-date=3 February 2025}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Loch, Granville Henry}}
[[Category:1859 births]]
[[Category:1929 deaths]]
[[Category:British military personnel in colonial India]]
[[Category:British Indian Army officers of punitive expeditions in the Lushai Hills]]
[[Category:Superintendents of Lushai Hills district]]
[[Category:Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire]]
[[Category:Indian Civil Service (British India) officers]]

Granville Henry Loch - Revision history

Dentaltrendz at 02:51, 25 April 2026