Robert Douglas, the District Magistrate of Midnapore, perhaps had some premonition of the lurking danger that awaited him. Robert, a civilian with 16 years of experience, was sent to the difficult Bengal district of Midnapore. Robert was born in England but came to India with his parents as an infant and spent some years of childhood at Nagpur. After service in Gallipoli and France, he came out to India and was in the North West Frontier Campaign of 1918–19. Calcutta, the capital of Bengal, had also been the capital of India till 1911, when it was shifted to Delhi.