Roexpertindia at 16:22, 20 March 2026

2026-03-20T16:22:40Z

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{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix = [[Sir]]
| name =Horace Williamson
| honorific_suffix =
| image =
| image_size =
| caption =
| order =
| office = Director, [[Intelligence Bureau (India)|Delhi Intelligence Bureau]]
| term_start = 1931
| term_end = 1936
| predecessor = [[David Petrie]]
| successor =
| deputy =
| office2 = Special advisor to the [[Secretary of State for India]]
| term_end2 =1942
| predecessor2 =
| successor2 =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 1880
| birth_place =
| death_date = 15 April 1965
| death_place =
| resting_place =
| resting_place_coordinates =
| profession = [[Indian Imperial Police|Police officer]]
}}
'''Sir Horace Williamson''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR-cats|sep=,|CIE|MBE}} (1880 - 15 April 1965) was a British colonial officer in the [[Indian Imperial Police]] and director of the [[Intelligence Bureau (India)|Delhi Intelligence Bureau]].<ref name=Griffiths1971>{{cite book |last1=Griffiths |first1=Percival |title=To Guard my People: The History of the Indian Police |date=1971 |publisher=Ernest Benn Ltd. |location=London |url=https://ia801509.us.archive.org/7/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.111104/2015.111104.The-History-Of-The-Indian-Police.pdf|isbn=0-510-26942-7|page=224}}</ref><ref name=Nair2022>{{cite book |last1=Nair |first1=Sunil |title=Tales of Crimes Past: A Casebook of Crime in Colonial India |date=2022 |publisher=Hachette |isbn=978-93-93701-27-5 |page=24 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UniCEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT24 |language=en |chapter=3. Murder they wrote: The Fulham Clark affair}}</ref>

==Biography==
Horace Wiiliamson was born in 1880 to a barrister.<ref name=West2014>{{cite book |last1=West |first1=Nigel |title=Historical Dictionary of British Intelligence |date=2014 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |location=Plymouth |isbn=978-0-8108-7896-9 |page=639 |edition=Second |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tWWAEQAAQBAJ&pg=PA639 |language=en |chapter=The Dictionary}}</ref> He was educated at [[Cheltenham College]] and joined the [[Indian Imperial Police|Indian Police Service]] in the [[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|United Provinces]] in 1900.<ref name=West2014/><ref name=Noonans>{{cite web |date=2014 |title=Lot 218, 25 March 2014 {{!}} Noonans Mayfair |url=https://www.noonans.co.uk/auctions/archive/lot-archive/results/244049/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251006071823/https://www.noonans.co.uk/archive/lot-archive/results/244049/ |archive-date=6 October 2025 |access-date=30 September 2025 |website=www.noonans.co.uk}}</ref>

Williamson rose through the ranks, becoming in charge of the police in Agra in 1909.<ref name=Noonans/> He then became Superintendent in 1913 and Assistant to the Inspector General in 1916.<ref name=West2014/><ref name=Noonans/> He was awarded the M.B.E. in 1919 and the [[Order of the Indian Empire|C.I.E.]] in 1921.<ref name=Noonans/> Promoted to [[Deputy inspector general of police|Deputy Inspector General]] in 1923, he later served as Officiating Inspector General in 1928.<ref name=West2014/><ref name=Noonans/> In 1931, at the height of the [[Indian independence movement|civil disobedience movement]], he succeeded [[David Petrie]] as Director of the [[Intelligence Bureau (India)|Delhi Intelligence Bureau]], a position for which he was awarded the [[King's Police Medal]] later that year.<ref name=West2014/><ref name=Noonans/><ref name=West2015>{{cite book |last1=West |first1=Nigel |title=Historical Dictionary of International Intelligence |date=2015 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=979-8-8818-7563-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5o-AEQAAQBAJ|page=xvii |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Silvestri |first1=Michael |title=Policing ‘Bengali Terrorism’ in India and the World: Imperial Intelligence and Revolutionary Nationalism, 1905-1939 |date=2019 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-030-18042-3 |page=90 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zm2hDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA90|language=en}}</ref> Between 1936 and 1942 he was special advisor to the [[Secretary of State for India]].<ref name=West2014/>

He died in 1965.<ref name=West2014/>

==Selected publications==
*{{cite book |title=India and Communism|url=https://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.237197/page/n5/mode/2up |date=1933 |publisher=Government of India Press |location=Calcutta}}

==See also==
*[[Augusta Fullam]]
*[[Bhagat Singh]]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book |title=Hunter Report on the Amritsar Massacre, 1919 |date=1920 |publisher=H.M. Stationery Office |location=Calcutta |url=https://archive.org/details/india-et-al.-1920-report-of-the-committee-appointed-in-the-governmen/page/n7|language=English}}

[[Category:1880 births]]
[[Category:1965 deaths]]
[[Category:People educated at Cheltenham College]]

{{UK-bio-stub}}

Horace Williamson - Revision history

Roexpertindia at 16:22, 20 March 2026