Captain William Harry Tilbury, M.C.
Extra Assistant Commissioner of Police
Superintendant Lushai Hills
Update: 18 August 2015
Governance of the Lushai Hills
Background Information
From A Memorandum of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dr. Boutros Ghali, submitted by leaders of the ZO Reunification Organisation (ZORO), General Headquarters, Aizawl, Mizoram
11. In consonance with observations in the British Foreign Department, any Acts & Regulations applicable in the British India or Burma did not automatically applicable to Lushai Hills or Chin Hills which was, among others, safeguarded by the provisions of the Scheduled District Act, 1874, except otherwise so declared by Order in official Gazette. Even the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation 1873, amended 1925, was made applicable in this spirit.
12. While political thinking and changes had taken place for the future governance of India, the British Government keeping in view, among others, the political future of ZO people, made provisions for special treatment of tribal minorities under the Government of India Act 1935 when Dominion status was awarded to India and Burma. At no stage, the affairs and interests of the ZO people were lost sight of.
13. Section 91 (1) of the Govt of India Act, 1935, provided special treatments. Which, among others, were in favour of indigenous inhabitants. Accordingly, on the 3rd Day of March, 1936, the King's Most Excellent Majesty in Council ordered the areas including Lushai Hills to be an "Excluded Area" basically because of the completely different nationality, origin, background, culture, language, etc of the native people therein, who were never before governed and controlled by India, Burma, Indian Rajahs or any foreign power as reffered to in Section 311 (1) of the said Act, and for that matter, even by the British (Annexure III).
14. The Excluded Areas were governed in the spirit of the following Acts and Regulations:-
(1) Foreign Jurisdiction Act, 1890
(2) Schedule District Act, 1874
(3) Chin Hills Regulation, 1896
(4) Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873 amended 1925.
Besides, necessary orders and Rules under the Act and Regulations were enforced from time to time. Lushai Hills was placed in the hands of what was called "Superintendent of Lushai Hills" and not under a Collector or Deputy Commissioner as designated elsewhere. The Superintendent was a representative of the King or Queen of Great Britain; that was why Mr. Tilbury, then Superintendent, claimed, "I am law".
Assam State Archives
Dept: General; Year: 1920.
SL No: 46; File Details: XV-10/20.
Subject:
Exemption of Mr. TILBURY from the Liability of passing examinations in Bengali and Assamese until he is posted to a Bengali or Assames District.
List of Passport Files
Dept: Political; Years: (1920-32); (1936-1941)*
SL No: 1839; File No./Year: 619-622/1928.
Name & other Information: William Harry TILBURY, Lungleh South Lushai Hills.
Date of Birth: England, 5-11-1881.
Profession: Assam Civil Service
Remarks: British.
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* I have not found the explanation of "1936-1941", since WHT d. 1932 - unless it refers to the business of his estate after death, and the placing of a monument on his grave.
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Dept: General; Year: 1933.
SL No: 2906; File Details: XIII-3/33.
Subject:
Extension of cemetery at Lungleh to include late Mr. TILBURY's grave and erection of a Monument there on.
Dept: Political; Year: 1934.
SL No: 291322; File Details: II-17/34.
Subject:
Estate of the Late Major W. H. TILBURY M.C. of the Assam civil service, and laws in force in the Lushai Hills.
Additional Information
From History of the Frontier Areas Bordering on Assam 1883-1941
by Sir Robert Reid, pub. 2005
The Lushai Hills, pg. 46
In 1923-24 the Governor, Sir John KERR, visited Aijal, and passed orders which led to the eventual extinction of the long outstanding agricultural loans which were given out in the scarcity between 1910 and 1912. In a note which he recorded on the 19th December 1923, Sir John observed that he had gone into the matter at some length with Mr. S. N. MacKENZIE the Superintendent and Mr. TILBURY, the Subdivisional Officer at Lungleh, and stated his conclusion thus:
I am convinced that our best course is to cut our losses and to bring the business to an end as soon as possible.
The bulk of the outstandings being irrecoverable, the result was that in the following year they were practically wholly written off.
pg. 49
Subdivisional Officers, Lungleh
1927-1932 : Mr. W. H. TILBURY, M.C., Extra Assistant Commissioner, Died on 15th December 1932.
Last, but far from least, the story of William Harry Tilbury in Lungleh
Tilbury's Ghost
by Vijendra Jafa
(I have been unable to contact the author and am
therefore unable to verify the family details given.)
WHT : BMD
Birth: given as 5 November 1881
The only registration (FreeBMD): for a Harry TILBURY in an appropriate time-slot, is b. 4Q 1881 (Edmonton 3a/303) (no Williams for that quarter), but I think Harry belonged to another family.
If I have attributed WHT to the right family tree, then his dob was 1881/2, and possibly not registered. My selection for his father is a William T b. Marlow, Buckinghamshire, whose first wife Eliza [LANDER or LAUDER] died 1Q 1882: the eldest child, William jnr., may be Eliza's son, and not that of William snr.'s second wife. Thus the date of 5 November 1881 is probably correct.
William TILBURY snr. m2. Sarah Ann BREAKSPEAR 4Q 1882 (Cookham 2c/855). According to Vijendra Jafa, WHT's father died not long after the birth; this MIGHT be a faulty memory, and it was perhaps his mother who died: no proof.
Marriage:
William H. TILBURY
m. Caroline E. PRICHARD 1Q 1920
Death: 15 December 1932
According to Vijendra Jafa, at a friend's house, Nilgiris, South India.
Burial: Lungleh, Lushai Hills (local cemetery)
I did not find WHT's death or burial registrations in the online Assam records. If anyone in Lungleh reads this page, a photo of the grave, if still visible, would be greatly appreciated. (Caroline, siteholder, June 2015)
From A History of the Frontier Areas Bordering on Assam: from 1883-1941
by Sir Robert Neil Reid, 1942, pg. 49:
1927-1932, Mr. W. H. TILBURY, M.C., Extra Assistant Commissioner.
Died on 15th December 1932.
More reading:
... the Superintendent as the head of the district resembled not merely a king but something more ...
Documents listed on British Library "Endangered Archives" webpages
EAP454/2/1:
Paper records of Pi Lalengliani [undated]; includes:
"No. 16: Copy of an order passed by W. H. TILBURY; 8 Dec., 1924"
British Library web page: letter reference
EAP454/6:
Reverend C. L. Hminga's Collection of Ecclesiastical Records and Early Photographs [1914-1940]; includes:
"Image 8-9: Major Tibury, S.D.O., South Lushai Hills [undated]. W.H.Tilbury, Sub-Divisional Officer, Lungleh, Lushai Hills. He was appointed several times as sub-divisional officer at Lungleh, Lushai Hills, (23.8.1921-31.10.1921; 13.3.1922-11.5.1922; 11.12.1926-30.4.1929; 9.2.1930-9.12.1932)"
British Library web page: photograph reference
British Library: India Office Select Materials
"Caption: W.H. Tilbury at home [?Aijal, Lushai Hills].
Photographer: Balding, Charles Dennis"
William Harry Tilbury, part 1: 1881-1920
Regimental Sergeant-Major in the Royal Berkshire Regiment
Mrs. Caroline Ellen [Prichard] Tilbury: b. 1886 m. 1920