Sir Alliston Champion Toker

Alliston Champion Toker was born in Hendon, Middlesex, and was the third son of Philip Champion Toker, Proctor, of Doctors Commons. He was commissioned in the 18th Infantry of the Indian Army in 1860. Toker demonstrated early in life the remarkable linguistic abilities that came to exercise the dominant influence over his career. He became proficient in Arabic, Bengali, Hindi, Sanskrit and Urdu and was to translate all military textbooks in use in the Indian Army into Urdu, Hindi and Gurmukhi (Punjabi).

Toker saw active service in the Bhutan Expedition (1864–5) and was Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General of the Indian Contingent in the Egyptian Campaign of 1882. He commanded the 18th Infantry in the Burma Campaign (1888–7). Besides languages, his other ability appears to have been military administration. He served as Deputy Secretary to the Government of India, Military Department (1887–92) and was Superintendent of Army Clothing, Bengal (1892–97). He was made major-general in 1897 and knighted in 1906. When the Great War broke out he was on the Unemployed Supernumerary List of the Indian Army.

The deployment of the Indian Corps to France in late 1914, however, provided an unexpected appendix to Toker’s career. He served with Indian Expeditionary Force in France during 1915, though in what capacity is uncertain. Given his linguistic ability and his later role in the war, he was probably connected with censorship (he was in charge of postal censorship in Liverpool, 1917–19). Toker was 71 when he went to France, which makes him one of the oldest men in any army to serve in uniform on the Western Front