Annex 2: Mortality

The British in Afghanistan 1878 -1881:
Volume I
Preface to First Edition
Preface to Second Edition
Organization
British Army Order of Precedence 1861
Indian Army (Bengal)
Indian Army (Madras)
Indian Army (Bombay)
Second Afghan War Medal Rolls
Source Abbreviations
Bibliography
Text Abbreviations
Rank and Service Abbreviations
Ranks Prefaced by Numerical Identification
The British in Afghanistan 1878-1881: A-F
Volume II
The British in Afghanistan 1878-1881: G-O
Volume III
The British in Afghanistan 1878-1881: P-Z
Annex 1: Extant memorials in Afghanistan
Annex 2: Mortality
Annex 3: Incomplete References

The official returns and casualty lists given in official sources and regimental records are intended to reflect those men who were killed or died in the prosecution of the war, either in action, or from wounds received in action, or other forms of death (murder, drowning, suicide, accidental shooting, wounding, sickness) directly associated with the prosecution of the hostilities. They do not attempt to reflect the full extent of mortality which may be attributed to the war: the more numerous men who fell victim to disease, or those who may have died some considerable time afterward from wounds received in the war, or who may simply have died from exhaustion, heat stroke, or numerous other causes, deaths which in the main may be attributed either directly, or indirectly, to participation in the war.

The present list is, therefore, not a casuality list, but a mortality list, and includes, insofar as possible, all deaths which the existing records intimate may be attributable to service in Afghanistan during the period of the war, and during the period of occupation of Kandahar for some months after the official cessation of hostilities. As an indication of mortality as distinct from casualty, I have accepted the most recent casualty list published by A. Farrington (abbrev. "F," see Bibliography). Those names which appear in Farrington have been preceded by an asterisk. The present mortality list does not include those who received non-mortal wounds (as Farrington does) but only those who died, either from wounds or other causes, during hostilities (ending on 1 September 1880), and for a short time after when the British army regiments occupied Kandahar until April 1881.

No casualty or mortality list can claim to be complete; the existing records are not adequate to produce such a definitive reckoning. Thus it will be noted that some reported in the Medal Rolls as killed in action (KIA) escaped recording by Farrington. Likewise, I have assumed that the Medal Rolls have not in every case recorded men who died from illness, or some other cause, and there are instances, as well, where the Medal Rolls do not record some either KIA, or deceased from other causes. My evidence for this is contained in burial registers which at times list men who do not even appear in the Medal Rolls, and records such as that compiled by Corrie for the 11th (North Devonshire) Regt. which also contains deaths not recorded in the Medal Rolls. In some cases, it is a matter of carelessness in recording the names correctly; the burial registers are especially inadequate in this regard. But the records of the individual regiments were also kept with varying degress of completeness and accuracy. The records of some of the regiments cite suspiciously few deaths; some of those KIA, but none, or hardly any, of those who died from wounds or illness. The 1st Battalion 5th (Northumberland Fusiliers) Regiment records only one killed (an officer, not in F) and two “deceased” in MR4: Lieut. Joseph Coyle and Capt. Herbert Williams, revealing of its probable disregard for the “other ranks.” This slight mortality record is possible, but highly unlikely. No mention is made of the wounded, twelve of whom were invalided to England, or the 50-60 deaths from cholera. The record in MR4 lists only 717 men, but Shadbolt gives 800 (a suspiciously round figure) in his Historical volume (SH) who crossed the ill-defined border into Afghanistan, many several times. Hence, I presume the actual number of deaths directly attributable to service in the war to be considerably greater than those I have been able to record in the Mortality list. Not a single KIA, wounding or death is recorded in the Medal Roll for the 1st. Battn. 25th (The King’s Borderers) Regt., (over one thousand men recorded in the Medal Roll). This is a virtual impossibility, and indeed, some have been found in other sources and entered here. Whenever it has been possible to cross-reference the sources, this has been noted. But there are clear cases where deaths recorded in the burial registers were not noted in the Medal Rolls. A true and complete mortality list would quite certainly be considerably longer than that given here. It would include those whose deaths some years after the war were the result of wounds received, or illnesses suffered. There is no record of these, but surely they were numerous. An estimation is not possible. For the 66th (Berkeshire) Regt., badly mauled in the Battle of Maiwand, and the 92nd (Gordon Highlanders) Regt., who bore the brunt of casualties in the Sept. 1, 1880 Battle of Kandahar, I have included the “Sick” and those simply identified as being “in Hospital [Kandahar] Citadel” because it cannot be doubted that many of these were either mortally or severely wounded and very likely to have died. F minimized the number of deaths among the 92nd Regt. by including only those who died within three or four days after the Battle of Kandahar. Gen. Roberts wished to show few British soldiers died in his decisive battle at Kandahar, and his wish still seems to support the accounting. While it is likely that some of the Kandahar wounded did survive, it is probable that many of the wounded in Hospital in the Kandahar Citadel died of their wounds wthin a week, or more, and were not recorded among the casualties, as the death registers indicate, even though these registers are themselves are not wholly reliable in their accounts.

The Regiments that lost the most men in battles and skirmishes, or as a result of the war, were the 9th (The King’s Royal) Hussars) Regt., the 10th (The Prince of Wales’s Own) Hussars Regt., The E/B R.H.A. (most in the Battle of Maiwand), the 17th (Leicester) Regt. (most through sickness), the 66th (Berkeshire) Regt. (most in the Battle of Maiwand), the 72nd (Duke of Albany’s Own Highlands) Regt. (many in the Battle of Kandahar), the 92nd (Gordon Highlanders) Regt. (many in the Battle of Kandahar). On those occasions (especially Maiwand) when many troops were killed over a large area, or when bodies could not be soon after retrieved or never found, burial parties placed unidentifiable remains in trenches, and a single memorial stone placed either at the trench or at the nearest regularized cemetery (e,g, Kabul-Sherpur). But in this regard more effort was expended on individual burials and stone memorials of officers than for those of the Other Ranks.

It is not always possible to ascertain with certainty whether a man who died of wounds at Kandahar on, say, 10 Sept. 1880, received those wounds at Maiwand (27 July), the Deh Khwaja sortie (16 Aug.), during the August siege of Kandahar, or at the Battle of Kandahar (1 Sept.). By far the greatest mortality was caused by sickness, particularly the virulent cholera epidemic during the spring and early summer of 1879. No separate list has been compiled of deaths from illness. Naturally, those regiments which served throughout both phases of the war and were engaged in the most costly battles (Basawal, Kabul, Ahmed Khel, Maiwand, Deh Khwaja,.Kandahar) show the greatest number of battle-related deaths. But regiments such as the 17th (The Leicestershire) Regt., which participated in the first phase of the war only, suffered more severely than most others from the cholera epidemic of spring 1879. The nine suicides have been recorded on the assumption that their cause was related to the psychological stress of the war. It is likely there were more.

References here are abbreviated. Fuller details, including sources for the data, can be found with the main entry, and in the bibliography. When date or place of d. is unrec., it is recorded thus.

You can search the mortality list in the FIBIS Database