This document is a letter critiquing a book review published in The Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research. The letter makes several points: 1. The book reviewer lacked sufficient knowledge of the Mysore wars and failed to acknowledge key strategic reasons for Colonel Bailie's defeat. 2. Several assertions in the book review are factually inaccurate, such as the size of Bailie's force and the role of other British officers. 3. The review whitewashes the contributions of Indian soldiers in the Madras Army who fought and suffered heavy casualties alongside their British comrades. 4. A key claim in the review about Sir Eyre Coote's role after the death of

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WHEN THE TIGERS FOUGHT THE THISTLE: THE
TRAGEDY OF COLONEL WILLIAM BAILLIE OF THE
MADRAS ARMY by Alan Tritton Review by: Kaushik Roy
A FLAWED AND MISLEADING REVIEW
WHEN THE TIGERS FOUGHT THE THISTLE: THE TRAGEDY OF COLONEL
WILLIAM BAILLIE OF THE MADRAS ARMY by Alan Tritton Review by: Kaushik Roy A
FLAWED AND MISLEADING REVIEW
• December 2021
• DOI:
• 10.13140/RG.2.2.26021.83680
• Project:
• MILITARY HISTORY
• Agha H Amin
TO. :--
The Journal of the Society for Army
Historical Research
SUBJECT – A FLAWED AND MISLEADING REVIEW

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WHEN THE TIGERS FOUGHT THE THISTLE: THE
TRAGEDY OF COLONEL WILLIAM BAILLIE OF THE
MADRAS ARMY by Alan Tritton Review by: Kaushik Roy
Dear Sir
This review lacks depth and contains various assertions which
are debatable.
Firstly the reviewer lacks knowledge of Mysore wars.
Thus he fails to bring out the most serious reason for Bailie’s
disaster i.e Munro’s refusal to agree to HM 71 Highlanders (HM
73rd
) that Bailie should junction with Munro at Madras rather
than conjeveram . This is well substantiated by Sir J. W
Fortescue in his British Army history.

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The reviewer’s assertion that Hyder “surrounded” 1
Munro is
incorrect . The right description was that Hyder had blocked
Munro and prevented him from directly marching towards
Bailie’s support.
The reviewer offers no critique of the false claim of the books
author the Colonel Fletcher was jealous of Bailie being a Royal
Army officer.2
All credible British accounts including Fortescue describe in
detail how Fletcher took bold risks and successfully evaded both
Hyder Ali and Tipu to reinforce Bailie
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Page-351 - WHEN THE TIGERS FOUGHT THE THISTLE: THE TRAGEDY OF COLONEL WILLIAM
BAILLIE OF THE MADRAS ARMY by Alan Tritton Review by: Kaushik Roy
-“ Munro himself was surrounded by Haider's main force”.
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Page-350-Ibid

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The reviewer’s description that Munro sent Bailie with a small
detachment 3
is also highly inaccurate and fallacious.
Describing 1000 men the size of an infantry battalion as. A
detachment is highly inaccurate. A detachment is generally a
company or two company force in the British Indian warfare
context of that time. A seasoned reviewer calling 1000 men , a
detachment is mind boggling.
An Indian reviewer exaggerating “few courageous Britons”
totally ignoring and whitewashing Madras Army Indians who
fought with their British comrades and were much praised by a
person no less than the officially supported historian of the
British Army as below :--- “yet both British and sepoys
Formed in hollow square, stood firm, and repulsed attack after
attack, driving back Hyder’s cavalry, with a carnage , that shook
the nerves of even his best troops”.4
The reviewer’s rather verbose description on page 351 is also
highly inaccurate and fallacious.He claims that “ Bailie was left
with a few courageous Briton’s, the 73rd
Highland’s grenadier
companies” . This is a false assertion .Bailie had HM 73rd
Grenadiers as well as the British Companys Private Madras
Infantry Battalions troops who fought as well as 73rd
and
suffered equally high casualties.Further Bailie had 3,312 men of
Madras Army who also suffered high casualties.The book
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“he merely sent a small detachment under Colonel Fletcher”- WHEN THE TIGERS FOUGHT
THE THISTLE: THE TRAGEDY OF COLONEL WILLIAM BAILLIE OF THE MADRAS ARMY by Alan
Tritton Review by: Kaushik Roy
4
Page-446- THE HISTORY OF THE BRITISH ARMY-VOLUME THREE – SECOND PART- London
1911.

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Historical Records of 1st
Madras Europeans states that all
sepoys which numbered over 3000 were killed or taken
prisoner, but an Indian Kaushik Roy only mentions “a few
courageous Britons”.
REVIEWERS MOST SERIOUSLY FALSE AND FLAWED CLAIM
THAT SIR EYRE COOTE WAS SUCCESSFUL AFTER DEATH OF
HYDER ALI ;--
On page-353 Mr Kaushik Roy makes a shockingly false claim:---
“Mysore was finally tackled by Eyre Coote ,commander of the
Madras Army, after the death of Haidar” .5
THIS IS A TOTALLY NON FACTUAL CLAIM.
Real tangible facts are as below:---
1. Sir Eyre Coote defeated Haidar in all major battles in 1782
before Haidar died.
2. Sir Eyre Coote sailed back to Madras on 28 September
1782 6
, well before Haidars death.
3. Sir Eyre Coote returned to Madras to command forces on
24th
April 1783 but died on 27th
April 1783 , so there was
no question of Sir Eyre Coote tackling anything after
Haidar’s death as Mr Kaushik Roy fallaciously claim.
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Page-351- WHEN THE TIGERS FOUGHT THE THISTLE: THE TRAGEDY OF COLONEL WILLIAM
BAILLIE OF THE MADRAS ARMY by Alan Tritton Review by: Kaushik Roy
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Page-COOTE BAHADUR- A LIFE OF GENERAL SIR EYRE COOTE- By E.W Sheppard-Published by
Werner Laurie-London -1956.

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4. Lastly Sir Eyre Coote was Commander in Chief Bengal Army
as well as commander in chief India and not commander
of the Madras Army which was a lower command. Yes he
did assume command of all troops in Madras but was
essentially C in C India and commander in chief of Bengal
Army.
TO CONCLUDE WHILE THE REVIEWER THINKS THAT THE BOOK
UNDER REVIEW HAS LIMITED VALUE , THIS HUMBLE SCRIBE
STRONGLY FEELS THAT THE REVIEW BY MR KAUSHIK ROY HAS
EVEN MORE LIMITED VALUE , SINCE IT IS FALLACIOUS ,
INACCURATE AND CONTAINS MANY FALSE ASSERTIONS.
HIS TOTALLY WHITEWASHING MADRAS INDIAN UNITS AND
MADRAS PRIVATE EUROPEAN UNITS OF THE BRITISH
COMPANY IS ALSO A DISSERVICE TO THE SACRIFICES OF THESE
TWO MILITARY OUTFITS.
Kind regards
Major Agha H Amin (Retired)
Old PAVO Cavalry
10 December 2021

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