Sir Henry Lovell Goldsworthy Gurney (27 June 1898 – 6 October 1951) was a British colonial administrator who served in various posts throughout the British Empire. Gurney was killed by communist insurgents during the Malayan Emergency, while serving as the high commissioner in the Federation of Malaya.
Career :
As a boy, Gurney was educated at Winchester College. During World War I, he joined the British Army, and served with the King's Royal Rifle Corps from 1917 to 1920. After a brief spell at University College, Oxford, he joined the British Colonial Service in 1921, and was posted to Kenya as an assistant district commissioner. In 1935, after fourteen years in Kenya, he was appointed Assistant Colonial Secretary to Jamaica. After a brief stint working at the Colonial Office in London, Gurney served as Chief Secretary to the Conference of East Africa Governors from 1938 to 1944, and Colonial Secretary in the Gold Coast from 1944 to 1946. In 1946, he was appointed Chief Secretary to Palestine, serving until the end of British rule there in 1948. While serving in Palestine, Gurney was instrumental in crafting British policy during the Jewish insurgency in Palestine.
Gurney was appointed High Commissioner to Malaya in October 1948. He assumed his post as the Malayan Emergency was beginning, and over the next three years he became the chief architect of British policy in Malaya.
Assassination of Sir Henry Gurney
The assassination of Sir Henry Gurney took place on 6 October 1951 at the height of the Malayan Emergency. Gurney, the British High Commissioner in Malaya, was killed by members of the Malayan Communist Party at Mile 56 ½ of Kuala Kubu Road on his way to Fraser's Hill for a meeting.
Gurney was riding in his Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith with his wife, private secretary D. J. Staples, and his Malayan chauffeur as part of a convoy that included an armoured scout car, a police wireless van, and a Land-Rover with six Malayan policemen sitting in its back. Eight miles from the ambush site, the wireless van developed engine trouble, and the commander advised Gurney to wait, but Gurney decided to press ahead with the rest of the convoy.
About 60 miles (97 km) north of Kuala Lumpur, as the convoy rounded a curve in the road, it was ambushed by a force of 38 Malayan Communist Party guerrillas, who opened fire on the convoy with three Bren guns, Sten guns, and rifles. Gurney and five of the six Malayan policemen in the Land-Rover were wounded, and his chauffeur killed. Both vehicles came to a halt as bullets punctured their tyres. Gurney pushed his wife and private secretary into the footwell of the car, then got out and staggered forward towards the ambush site shouting repeatedly "This is the King’s Highway!" to draw the insurgents' fire away from the car and towards himself. The guerrillas fired in his direction, fatally hitting him.
The armoured scout car pushed ahead of the Rolls-Royce with some difficulty to get help from a nearby police station. The insurgents stayed in the area for about ten more minutes, firing intermittently at anything that moved. A bugle call then sounded, and the insurgents pulled back.
When the firing eased, Lady Gurney crawled out of the Rolls-Royce, only to discover her husband's body lying in a roadside ditch. Twenty minutes later, the officer in charge of the armoured scout car arrived at the scene with reinforcements from the police station. Gurney’s body was placed on a gurney and transported to hospital.
According to Communist leader Chin Peng, the ambush was routine, the killing by chance, and the guerrillas only learned the High Commissioner was among the dead from news reports. Gurney's funeral took place on 8 October. He was buried in Cheras War Cemetery in Kuala Lumpur, in a ceremony that drew thousands of people.
The Geocache
The geocache is located outside the grave plot. It blends in with its surrounding.
Appreciation
Congratulations to lometogo and Aldwych for the FTF
Thanks to Lometogo and OrienTheory for the Favourite Points given. Much Appreciated.