Harold Moylan

A Fiery Irishman Harold Moylan

A look at the life of a 19th Century Irishman who left his peaceful home in Dublin, as a young lawyer, travelled to West Africa in 1873 and covered the Ashanti War as a Special Correspondent of The Times newspaper in London. He next appeared in the West Indies as a Magistrate in St. Vincent (1874), and as the Attorney General of both Tobago (1877) and Grenada (1880). His combative nature and insistence on the strict observance of rules and regulations as well as his championing of the rights of the native populations got him into conflicts with the Lieutenant-Governors and other senior officials on these islands. His move to Burma in 1885, once more as the Special Correspondent of The Times covering the Third Anglo-Burmese War, proved to be his most contentious assignment. He was the only journalist to obtain an interview with King Thibaw, the last King of Burma, before the King's dethronement, and removal with the royal family by the British in exile to India. His reports to the Times were critical of the army's conduct of the war which angered the top military brass and led to his being ordered to leave Mandalay by General Sir Harry Prendergast, the British military commander. However, the editor of the Times used his friendship with the Secretary of State, Lord Randolph Churchill to overrule that order. He was later accused of damaging the careers of General Prendergast, senior military officers and also high-ranking administrative officials, (including the Viceroy of India, Lord Dufferin) in his subsequent quest for revenge.