Major-General Sir Chauncy Batho Dashwood Strettell, KCIE CB

 

 

Chauncy Batho Dashwood Strettell was born on 16 August 1881 at Sheikh Budin, Punjab, India, the first of two children of Captain Arnold Dashwood Strettell of the Bengal Staff Corps, and his wife Harriett Elizabeth (née Batho). His mother died in Kingston, Surrey, when he was just three years old, and his brother three years later.

Educated at Wellington College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Strettell was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant on 20 January 1900 and soon after joined the Indian Army. He was promoted to lieutenant on 2 May 1902 and captain on 20 January 1909, serving in the Indian Army's 23rd Cavalry (Frontier Force). He subsequently served as Assistant Commandant of the Burma Military Police, for which he was awarded  the King's Police Medal in the 1914 New Years Honours.

Strettell married Kathleen Batho Castle in the St Martin in the Fields Parish Church on 12 September 1914. Their first child, Arnold Dashwood, was born nine months later. It seems they later divorced, for on 14 October 1922 Strettell married Margery Gillian de Hane Brown in Bombay.

On 20 October 1914 he was appointed commanding officer of the newly-formed 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons Service Squadron, with the rank of temporary major.

On 17 June 1915, however, he left the squadron to resume service in the Indian Army, replaced by Major Athelstan Chamberlayne.

He was appointed major in the 23rd Cavalry on 20 January 1916 (later made permanent and backdated to 1 September 1915).

The text below is sourced from Wikipedia:

The following February, he was posted to Mesopotamia; he served as a brigade major in the 7th Indian Cavalry Brigade between December 1917 and April 1919, a deputy assistant quarter master general in India between June and November 1919, and a general staff officer in India between December 1919 and September 1920. Strettell was then appointed brigade major in the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, but relinquished his post in December 1921. Having been a brevet lieutenant-colonel since 3 June 1919, he was appointed to the full rank on 25 April 1924 and a colonel on 1 November of that year (with seniority to the previous June).

Having been commandant of the 11th Cavalry (Frontier Force) between 1924 and 1928, Strettell served as an assistant adjutant general in India between July 1928 and July 1929, a brigade commander from then until April 1932 and a brigadier general on the Indian Staff until December 1934. On 26 August 1934, he was promoted to major-general, and appointed deputy quarter master general and director of movements in India between July 1935 and February 1936. He was director of organisation in India from then until November 1936, when he became commander of the Peshawar District. He retired in 1940, although he was brought back into active service as a group commandant of the prisoner of war camps in 1941. He was then director of demobilisation and reconstruction in Indian (1941–43), before retiring for the last time in 1944.

Strettell was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1935 and Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire in 1940. In his retirement, Strettell served on a number of boards, including the Council of the Asian Society, the Governing body of Wellington College (1947–56) and the Punjab Frontier Force Executive Committee (Chairman between 1951 and 1954).

By 1958 Strettell was living at 3 Nevern Mansions, Nevern Square, London SW5, having retired from the army. He died at Beaumont House, Beaumont Street, Marylebone, on 27 January.

 

 

Belfast News-Letter, 30 January 1958.

 

The first image, part of a group photo of officers and NCOs of the squadron, appeared in the Belfast Evening Telegraph of 28 January 1915. The full image can be seen here. The second image is sourced from an online auction site.

 

This page last updated 10 October 2023.