View source for George Roos-Keppel

{{Short description|British military officer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{more citations needed|date=September 2014}}
{{Infobox military person
 | name                 = George Olaf Roos-Keppel
 | image                = George Roos Keppel.jpg
 | caption              = 
 | birth_date           = 7 September 1866 
 | death_date           = 11 December 1921
 | birth_place          = 
 | death_place          = 
 | placeofburial        = 
 | placeofburial_label  = 
 | nickname             = 
 | allegiance           = {{flag|United Kingdom}}
 | branch               = [[British Army]]
 | serviceyears         = 1886–1920
 | rank                 = [[Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant Colonel]]
 | unit                 = 
 | commands             = 
 | battles              = [[Third Anglo-Afghan War]]
 | awards               = [[Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire]] (1917)<br />[[Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India]] (1915)
 | relations            = 
 | laterwork            = 
}}

'''Sir George Olaf Roos-Keppel''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|sep=,|GCIE|KCSI}} (7 September 1866 – 11 December 1921) was a British military officer who served in the capacities of Political Agent to the [[Governor-General]] in [[Kurram Agency|Kurram]] and [[Khyber Agency|Khyber]], and later as [[List of chief commissioners of the North-West Frontier Province|Chief Commissioner]], [[North-West Frontier Province (1901–1955)|North West Frontier Province]] from 1908 till 1919. He is also known for his role in [[Third Anglo-Afghan War|3rd Afghan War]].<ref>[[Sir Olaf Caroe]], ''The Pathans'', London: Macmillan, 1958</ref>

==Life==
Roos was born in the [[Park Lane]] area of London, the son of Gustaf Ehrenreich Roos, a Swedish merchant in England, and his wife, Elizabeth Annie Roffey, daughter of George Roffey of [[Twickenham]]. He changed his surname in 1890, to Roos-Keppel, at the request of his Dutch-Swedish grandmother. He was educated at [[United Services College, Westward Ho!]], abroad, and at the [[Royal Military College, Sandhurst]].<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB|id=35823|first=T. R.|last=Moreman|title=Keppel, Sir George Olof Roos- [formerly George Olof Roos]}}</ref>

George Roos was commissioned a [[Lieutenant (British Army and Royal Marines)|lieutenant]] in the [[Royal Scots Fusiliers]] on 25 August 1886, and was promoted to [[Captain (BARM)|captain]] on 1 September 1895.<ref>Hart's Army list, 1901</ref> He transferred to the [[Indian Staff Corps]] on 19 September 1897.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27168|page=1264|date=23 February 1900}}</ref> He was Political Officer in the Khyber when in March 1900 he was appointed to the temporary command of the [[Khyber Rifles]], a frontier corps.<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Naval & Military intelligence|date=19 March 1900 |page=9 |issue=36093}}</ref> For his service on the North West Frontier of India, he was appointed a Companion of the [[Order of the Indian Empire]] (CIE) in the [[1900 New Year Honours]] list.<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=New Year Honours |date=1 January 1900 |page=9 |issue=36027}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27150|date=2 January 1900|pages=2–3  }}</ref> Promoted to the [[Brevet (military)|brevet]] rank of [[Major (British Army)|major]] in 1902, he received the substantive rank of major in 1904 and promotion to Brevet [[Lieutenant-colonel (British Army)|lieutenant-colonel]] in 1907. In 1908, he was knighted with the KCIE and was promoted to full Lieutenant-Colonel in 1912.

In 1913, Roos-Keppel, along with Nawab Sir [[Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum]] established [[Islamia College (Peshawar)]], which was inaugurated by [[Turangzai|Haji Sahib Turangzai]]. Roos-Keppel was also president of Central Committee of Examiners in [[Pashto language|Pashto]]. He is credited with foreseeing the genius in the young [[Cambridge University|Cambridge]] graduate [[Allama Mashriqi|Inayatullah Khan]] by appointing him, at the age of 24, the Vice Principal of [[Islamia College (Peshawar)]] in 1913, and then the Principal in 1917. He was appointed a KCSI in 1915 and a GCIE in 1917. He formally retired from the Indian Army in 1920 and died on 11 December of the following year, aged 55.

== Academic contributions ==
Roos-Keppel was well versed in the [[Pashto language|Pashto]] language:
* In 1901, he produced his own editions from T. B. Hughes' English translations of ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=TeJDAAAAYAAJ Ganj-e-Pashto]'' and ''Tarikh-e-[[Mahmud of Ghazni|Sultan Mahmud-e-Ghaznavi]]''. These editions replaced the older versions as [[textbook]]s for [[Military officer]]s.
* He also authored 'The Pashto Manual' as a [[guide book]] on [[colloquial]] Pashto in 1901, followed by a second impression in 1907 while serving as [[Captain (land and air)|Captain]] in the [[Khyber Pass]].

== Notes ==
{{reflist}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-gov}}
{{succession box | title=[[List of chief commissioners of the North-West Frontier Province|Chief Commissioner of the<br />North-West Frontier Province]] | before=[[Harold Arthur Deane|Harold Deane]] | after=[[William Merck|William Rudolph Henry Merck]] | years=1908–1909}}

{{succession box |title=2nd term|
years=1910–1913|
before= [[William Merck|William Rudolph Henry Merck]]| 
after=[[John Stuart Donald|Sir John Stuart Donald]]}}

{{succession box |title=3rd term|
years=1915–1919|
before= [[John Stuart Donald|Sir John Stuart Donald]]| 
after=[[Hamilton Grant|Sir Hamilton Grant]]}}

{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roos-Keppel, George}}
[[Category:1866 births]]
[[Category:1921 deaths]]
[[Category:People from British India]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the Third Anglo-Afghan War]]
[[Category:Indian Staff Corps officers]]
[[Category:Knights Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire]]
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Star of India]]
[[Category:Founders of Indian schools and colleges]]
[[Category:Royal Scots Fusiliers officers]]
[[Category:Central Asian studies scholars]]
[[Category:Pashto-language writers]]
[[Category:Military personnel from the City of Westminster]]
[[Category:Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst]]
[[Category:19th-century British Army personnel]]
[[Category:19th-century British military personnel]]