Draft:Granville Henry Loch
Lieutenant-Colonel Granville Henry Loch | |
|---|---|
| Superintendent of the Lushai Hills | |
| In office 1905–1906 | |
| Preceded by | W.N. Kennedy |
| Succeeded by | F.C. Henniker |
| Commandant of the Lushai Hills Military Police | |
| In office 1898–1914 | |
| Preceded by | Robert Henry Sneyd Hutchinson (South Lushai Hills) Granville Henry Loch (North Lushai Hills) |
| Succeeded by | Captain H.C. Nicolay (2nd Gurkhas) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | January 26, 1859 St George Hanover Square |
| Died | December 30, 1929 (aged 70) London, England |
| Relations | William Adam Loch (Father) Sophia Loch (b. Bates, Mother) |
| Known for | Founder of Fort Aijal, (now Aizawl) |
| Awards | Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Rank | Lieutenant-Colonel |
| Unit | Lushai Hills Military Police |
| Battles/wars | Chin-Lushai Expedition Lushai Rising |
Lieutenant-Colonel Granville Henry Loch CIE (26 January 1859-30 December 1929) was an Indian civil service officer and a military officer. He was superintendent of the Lushai Hill District from 1905-1906, he is accredited with the establish of Fort Aijal which would become the city of Aizawl.
Construction of Aizawl
[edit]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 Western Lushai Rising under Khalkam was subdued by 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 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.
By 1897, Loch had built the assistant commandant of the Lushai Hill's military police personal bungalow. 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.
Loch had also added a Queen Victoria memorial porch to the Quarterguard. Loch privately financed a bust of Queen Victoria to accomplish the memorial. After moving the married quarters from the bachelor barracks, the emtpied 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 ₹1,200 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.
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.
Sources
[edit]BMD
[edit]- "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 3 February 2025.
Books
[edit]- Reid, Robert (1942). The Lushai Hills: culled from History of the frontier areas bordering on Assam from 1883-1941. Calcutta: Firma KLM.
News
[edit]- The Irish Cathlolic Herald (11 January 1930). "In Memoriam". The Irish Catholic Herald. No. 1870.
- The Times (1 January 1930). "Obituary: Lieutenant.Colonel Loch". The Times. No. 45399.
External Links
[edit]- Geni. "Granville Henry Loch". MyHeritage. Retrieved 3 February 2025.