Herbert Walter Gee was born in 1866, the son of the Rev. W. Gee of East Coker, later of 8 Waterden Place, Guildford. His education followed the established preparatory path for boys intended for academic distinction and administrative service. He attended Mr Curteis’s school at Hillside, Godalming, before entering Sherborne School (Harper House) in 1880. He remained there until 1884, serving as a Scholar, a member of the Sixth Form, and a School Prefect. From Sherborne he proceeded to New College, Oxford, continuing the course expected of candidates for the higher branches of the Indian Civil Service.

Gee entered the Indian Civil Service in 1885, placing tenth out of forty‑one candidates in the competitive examination. He went to India in 1887 and began the sequence of district appointments typical of a young ICS officer. In January 1890 he was made Assistant Commissioner in charge of the Rajanpur Sub‑Division of the Dera Ghazi Khan District, invested with the powers of a Collector and authorised to try, as a Magistrate, all cases not punishable by death. His administrative work was accompanied by scholarly interests: in December 1891 he published a monograph on fibrous manufactures in the Punjab, describing the principal fibrous plants, their localities and their uses.

In April 1896 Gee was appointed Political Officer in the Tochi Valley, a frontier posting requiring negotiation, intelligence work and constant personal risk. The dangers of the appointment were widely recognised. During the Tochi Valley Expedition of 1897 he served as Chief Political Officer, operating in a region where relations with tribal groups were volatile and often deceptive. In June 1897 a British detachment visiting Maizar was ambushed in what contemporary reports described as an act of “basest treachery”. The Maliks had been in friendly intercourse with Gee and had parted from him on apparently cordial terms. His visit to Maizar had been pre‑arranged, and two Maliks were sent ahead by him. One brought food for Gee, the British officers and the Mohammedans; then, without warning, fire was opened from all sides. All the British officers except Gee were hit almost immediately. Lieutenants Higginson and Seton Browne were reported to be recovering, and Surgeon‑Captain Cassidy, though seriously wounded, was not believed to be in danger. Gee survived the attack and continued in his post, a fact noted in a Punjab summary which recorded that “H. W. Gee, who was so treacherously attacked at Maizar last year, still holds the post of Political Officer in the Tochi Valley.”

In 1899 Gee was appointed Deputy Commissioner (2nd Grade) of Dera Ismail Khan, a senior administrative position carrying responsibility for civil order, revenue, judicial oversight and frontier relations. His career trajectory was that of an able ICS officer expected to advance further within the service, combining administrative competence with frontier experience.

Gee died at Dera Ismail Khan on 4 February 1901 of pneumonia, aged thirty‑five. His household and personal effects, including a four‑seated trap by Cosser described as “quite new”, were auctioned on 13 April 1901. His career, though brief, reflected the demands placed upon civil and political officers in the Punjab: administrative responsibility, scholarly engagement, and service in districts where negotiation and danger were inseparable.

Gee died in 1901, ending a career that had combined academic distinction with service in one of the most challenging administrative environments of the British Empire. His connection to East Coker through his father, the Rev. W. Gee, places him within the wider history of the parish’s contribution to imperial administration during the late nineteenth century.

Mr. Gee, political agent at Tochi, on the Afghan frontier, will have to give a better explanation of the disaster that has befallen his escort than the treachery of the tribesmen who attacked them. His telegram to the Secretary for India says: — “About 2 p.m. we were suddenly attacked while resting under trees at Maizar in a most cowardly and treacherous manner.”

If all his arrangements were like that of the words in this sentence, we are not surprised that many brave men were sacrificed and the disgraceful sight was seen of a considerable British force fleeing before a savage foe for four miles, and only rescued from extermination by the arrival of reinforcements.

It was the business of Mr. Gee to know something of the character of the tribesmen with whom he was dealing. We have had a good deal to do with the Waziris lately, and their character and mode of warfare were familiar to newspaper readers at home, as well as to every junior lieutenant in the Indian Army.

Mr. Gee’s mission was one that ought to have put him particularly on the alert. He was visiting Sherani and Maizar, as his own telegram states, “for the purpose of fixing a site for a post and realization of fines.” Did he expect the tribes in these valleys desired the presence of a British post, the business of which was to exact the payment of fines for disorderly behaviour?

That his superiors did not expect it appears from the fact that his escort comprised 300 rifles, two guns, and twelve sowars, all commanded by an experienced officer, Lieut.-Col. A. H. Bunny, who had seen much active service, including the Afghan Campaign of 1870.

Among the killed were Colonel Bunny, Captain Brown, R.A., and Captain Cruikshank, who was in command of the mountain battery. “Severely wounded” were Lieutenant Seton Brown, 1st Punjab Infantry; Lieutenant Higginson, 1st Sikhs; and Surgeon-Captain Cassidy, of the same regiment. One native officer and twenty-one rank and file were killed, and twenty-four rank and file were wounded. A number of horses and mules were killed, and the guns remain, of course, as trophies in the hands of the Waziri.

The district in which this disgraceful episode occurred has been but lately brought under Imperial authority. The authority is, however, as yet merely nominal, and it was known to the Government at Simla that there was a dangerous fanatical priest who was stirring up his co-religionists to armed resistance.

“Some time ago,” as we read in another telegram, “he was expelled by the authorities, and has since been living among the neighbouring Afghans, and getting together a fresh following.” All this information ought to have been known to Mr. Gee, a political agent, and it will be for him now to explain how it came to be disregarded.

He may be able to clear himself by imputing gross neglect or incompetency to the deceased Colonel Bunny, but it will not do to accuse the tribesmen of treachery and cowardice in their methods of warfare. It is the business of British officers in India, whether civil or political, to guard against these qualities in a savage enemy. Mr. Commissioner Jones might as well complain of the insidious methods of a Dublin burglar.

Thanks to Nick Balmer for discovering this account of that 1897 ambush in the Dublin Evening Mail - Saturday 12 June 1897