Reginald Dyer

Reginald Dyer (born October 9, 1864, Murree, India—died July 23, 1927, Long Ashton, near Bristol, England) was a British general remembered for his role in the Massacre of Amritsar in India, in 1919.

Dyer was commissioned in the West Surrey Regiment in 1885 and subsequently transferred to the Indian Army. He campaigned in Burma (Myanmar) in 1886–87 and took part in a blockade of Waziristan (now in Pakistan) in 1901–02. During World War I (1914–18) he had charge of the Eastern Persian cordon, the purpose of which was to prevent German crossings into Afghanistan.

Dyer was brigade commander at Jalandhar, southeast of Amritsar, in early 1919. Following the outbreak of rioting and violence in Amritsar in April—which included the killing of four Europeans and the beating of a woman missionary—he moved his troops to that city to restore order there; one of the stipulations was a ban on public gatherings. On April 13 Dyer’s troops confronted a gathering of thousands of Indians in an enclosed area in the city, and he ordered them to open fire. According to an official report, his troops killed 379 unarmed Indian men, women, and children and wounded some 1,200. As a result, Dyer was removed from command into enforced retirement. The matter received international attention, and Indian nationalists turned the site into a martyrs’ memorial.