43 Facts About Reginald Dyer

Colonel Reginald Edward Harry Dyer, was a British military officer in the Bengal Army and later the newly constituted British Indian Army.

Reginald Dyer has been called "the Butcher of Amritsar", because of his order to fire on a large gathering of people.

Reginald Dyer was widely condemned for spearheading the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, both in Britain and India, but he became a celebrated hero among some with connections to the British Raj.

Reginald Dyer was the son of Edward Dyer, a brewer of English heritage who managed the Murree Brewery, and Mary Passmore.

Reginald Dyer spent his childhood in Murree and Shimla and received his early education at the Lawrence College Ghora Gali, Murree and Bishop Cotton School in Shimla.

Reginald Dyer then decided to pursue a military career, and enrolled at the Royal Military College of Sandhurst, from where he graduated in August 1885.

Reginald Dyer was fluent in a number of Indian languages as well as Persian.

Reginald Dyer transferred to the Bengal Army, initially joining the Bengal Staff Corps as a lieutenant in 1887.

Reginald Dyer was attached to the 39th Bengal Infantry, later transferring to the 29th Punjabis.

Reginald Dyer served in the latter in the Black Mountain campaign, the Chitral Relief and, after attending the Staff College, Camberley from 1896 to 1897, the Mahsud blockade.

Reginald Dyer commanded the 25th Punjabis in India and Hong Kong and was promoted to lieutenant colonel in May 1910.

Reginald Dyer was promoted colonel in March 1915, and was promoted to temporary brigadier general in February 1916, when he took command of a brigade, and again in March 1918.

In 1919, about a month after the Jallianwala Bagh killing, Reginald Dyer served in the Third Anglo-Afghan War.

Reginald Dyer's brigade relieved the garrison of Thal, and inflicted heavy casualties on Afghans, for which he was again mentioned in dispatches.

Reginald Dyer retired on 17 July 1920, retaining the rank of colonel.

In 1888 Reginald Dyer married Frances Anne Trevor Ommaney, the daughter of Edmund Piper Ommaney, on 4 April 1888, in St Martin's Church, Jhansi, India.

Reginald Dyer advocated non-violent civil disobedience and was forbidden by the authorities to speak publicly.

Reginald Dyer, who was the commandant of the infantry brigade in Jalandhar, was incensed that a European woman had been attacked and decided to take action.

The proposed meeting was to take place in the Jallianwala Bagh, in defiance of the proclamation; Reginald Dyer saw this as an opportunity to, in his view, suppress rebels, and, as he claimed, do so in isolation from the general populace.

Seven people had addressed the meeting before Reginald Dyer arrived, including Brij Gopi Nath who read a poem inciting people to war.

Reginald Dyer had two armoured cars with machine guns, which were unable to pass through the entrance.

The day after the massacre Reginald Dyer continued along confrontational lines, even though the city was quiet.

Reginald Dyer met with a delegation of Amritsar citizens to whom he directed the following speech, without having received their petitions or heard from them.

Reginald Dyer devised what even one of his generally supportive superiors, O'Dwyer, described as an "irregular and improper" retaliation for the attack on Marcella Sherwood, designed, it seemed, to fall indiscriminately and humiliatingly on the local population.

When questioned at the Hunter inquiry about this, Reginald Dyer explained his motivation:.

Michael O'Dwyer, Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab from 1913 to 1919, endorsed Reginald Dyer and called the massacre a "correct" action.

Many Indians blamed O'Dwyer, and while Reginald Dyer was never assaulted, O'Dwyer was assassinated in London in 1940 by an Indian revolutionary, Sardar Udham Singh in retaliation for his role in the massacre.

Reginald Dyer was met by the Adjutant-General of India, Lieutenant-General Havelock Hudson, who told him that he was relieved of his command.

Reginald Dyer was told later by the Commander-in-Chief in India, General Charles Monro, to resign his post and that he would not be reemployed.

Reginald Dyer was heavily criticised both in Britain and India.

Reginald Dyer wrote an article in the Globe of 21 January 1921, entitled, "The Peril to the Empire".

However, in his account of the massacre Nick Lloyd comments that although Reginald Dyer later claimed to have undertaken the massacre to "save" British India, he had had no such idea in his mind that fateful afternoon.

Reginald Dyer persuaded himself it had been his duty to act as he did, but he could not persuade his soul that he had done right.

Churchill, the then Secretary of State for War, wanted Reginald Dyer to be disciplined, but the Army Council superseded by him decided to allow Reginald Dyer to resign with no plan for further punishment.

Reginald Dyer acquired a farm at Ashton Fields, Ashton Keynes, Wiltshire, which was still given as his address when he died, although in 1925 he had bought a small cottage at Long Ashton on the outskirts of Bristol and spent his last two years there, while one of his sons lived at the farm.

Reginald Dyer suffered a series of strokes during the last years of his life and he became increasingly isolated due to the paralysis and speechlessness inflicted by his strokes.

Reginald Dyer died of cerebral haemorrhage and arteriosclerosis on 23 July 1927.

The Conservative-leaning Morning Post defended him in an article titled "The Man Who Saved India", where they wrote that Reginald Dyer "did his duty, regardless of consequences".

In 1977, Reginald Dyer was depicted in the Indian film Jallian Wala Bagh.

Reginald Dyer was portrayed by actor Edward Fox in the 1982 film Gandhi.

Reginald Dyer was depicted in Indian films such as The Legend of Bhagat Singh, and Sardar Udham.

Reginald Dyer was portrayed by Alex Reece in the 2025 web series The Waking of a Nation.

Reginald Dyer was portrayed by Simon Paisley Day in the 2025 film Kesari Chapter 2.