CAMPAIGN GROUPS AND PAIRS x777
Four: Lieutenant-Colonel G. A. Preston, 6th Gurkha Rifles, late 40th Pathans, with whom he served in the Tibet campaign, was wounded at Gyantse and mentioned in despatches
TIBET 1903-04, 1 clasp, Gyantse (Captn. G. A. Preston 40th Pathans); 1914-15 STAR (Major G. A. Preston. 6/Gurkha. R.); BRITISH WAR AND VICTORY MEDALS, with M.I.D. oak leaf (Lt. Col. G. A. Preston.) court mounted, extremely fine (4)
£1800-2200
George Allan Preston was born on 14 January 1868, the son of Samuel Preston. He studied at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst in 1890-91 and on 9 September 1891 was commissioned into the Royal Scots. On 14 January 1893 he was commissioned as Lieutenant in the Indian Army and appointed to the 40th Pathans. In July 1896 he was appointed Double Company Officer, and on 10 July 1901 was promoted Captain. In the course of his career he gained the following professional qualifications: Musketry Certificate (Extra); Instructor in Army Signalling; Equitation Certificate; Pushtu (Higher Standard); and Tactical Fitness For Command.
In December 1903 Colonel Francis Younghusband led an invasion of 1150 fighting men from Sikkim into Tibet. He had instructions to proceed as far as Gyantse, where he was to negotiate with the Tibetans. After establishing a base camp in the Chumbi Valley and passing the winter at Phari, he reached Gyantse on 11 April. Gyantse was the third city of Tibet and was dominated by a fortress called Gyantse Jong standing on top of an enormous rock rising 500 feet from the surrounding plain. Younghusband did not occupy the Fort (which was empty when he arrived) but established his camp at a hamlet called Chang Lo, about 1000 yards away.
The Tibetans refused to negotiate and the Government reluctantly accepted the necessity of authorising an advance to Lhasa. Further reinforcements, including the 40th Pathans, were sent to Tibet. Preston was with them, serving as Adjutant. They proceeded to Siliguri and climbed the Tista Valley to the Jelap La (a rise from 1000 to 14000 feet), and reached the British base camp in the Chumbi Valley. Here Captain Preston met the Commander of the military escort, Brigadier James Macdonald. The campaign was to be bedevilled by personality clashes between Younghusband and Macdonald, and so it is interesting to note Preston’s first impression of the latter, as recorded in a letter to his wife: ‘They say that General Macdonald is losing his nerve from illness ... He has a weak-looking face. Is absolutely run by his staff, who are a poor lot, and smokes cigarettes till he is sick.’
On 10 June 1904, Younghusband returned to the base camp and when he left on the 13th to return to Gyantse he was accompanied by the reinforcements. On 25 June they passed through the Red Idol Gorge, a natural defensive position where a battle had been fought when the force first passed this way on 9 April. This time it was undefended, to the relief of some and the disappointment of others. Here Preston first came face to face with the enemy, in the form of a group of Tibetan prisoners recovering from their wounds in a field hospital. With the help of an interpreter he talked to two of them and was astonished to find that they were now quite willing to fight for the British side.
On 26 June Preston and the 40th took part in the attack on the fortified monastery of Naini, consisting of the main monastery in the valley floor, the nearby village and two small forts built high on the steep slopes above the monastery. These were first bombarded by the six mountain guns for an hour and a half, then the Gurkhas and Pathans rushed the monastery with a bayonet charge and took it. The village was then captured after being cleared house by house in lethal close-quarter fighting. The losses of the Pathans in this action were one killed, three wounded. That evening they arrived at Chang Lo. On 29 June the Tibetans condescended to negotiate for the first time but nothing could be agreed.
After the British established their camp at Chang Lo, the Tibetans re-occupied Gyantse Fort and for some weeks maintained an ineffective but irritating bombardment. The sides of the rock on which the fort was sited were so steep that it appeared insurmountable from every side except at its south-west corner, where the main gate-way was protected by walls and earthworks to the front and one massive projecting bastion behind. A second and no less redoubtable ring of bastions was set some two hundred feet higher. It certainly impressed George Preston: ‘It is a most formidable place,’ he wrote to his wife, ‘and it will cost us dear before it is taken. It is an enormous place - how it is going to be taken beats me ... If we do storm it and the Tibetans hold on we shall have a long list of casualties.’
The British launched their attack on Gyantse Jong on 6 July. The attack was in three stages; the first was to capture the labyrinth of stone walls, gardens and narrow alleys lying to the south of the rock. This attack was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell of the Pathans, with Preston as his Chief Staff Officer. Three columns formed up and marched out of camp at 2 a.m. The Pathans were leading the centre column. In the pre-dawn darkness, they collided with the head of the right column just as a volley of shots was fired from the village. Some of the Pathans bolted and their officers had to draw their revolvers to put a stop to the panic. The infantry then fought through the complex of buildings at the southern side of the Jong. ‘For some time we had a nasty time of it.’ wrote George Preston of the fighting there. ‘The Tibetans are rather good at throwing stones and 4 or 5 of us were knocked over by them". He himself suffered three wounds which, he assured his wife, were ‘very light scratches. One was a stone which hit me in the back of the neck and bowled me over but was no worse. Another was a slight graze on the left hand, and another was a graze on the chin.’
In the second phase, the mountain guns were brought up and bombarded the walls of the Jong, breaching them in several places, while the Maxim guns sprayed bullets at any defenders who showed themselves. At around 2 p.m., in the third stage, the 8th Gurkhas stormed the Jong itself, scaling the near vertical rock faces under a barrage of rocks in a gallant attack which resulted in the award of a Victoria Cross and an Indian Order of Merit. Following the capture of the Jong, some of the soldiers then began to loot the Palkor Chode, one of the most illustrious monasteries of Tibet, in defiance of orders. Preston was not one of them; he grumbled to his wife that he wished he could send her some loot ‘but there are very strict orders about it and it is only people who haven't any conscience at all who get it ... It is awfully annoying to see fellows sending away loot, whilst you cannot send away any at all.’
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