Tirah Campaign

Tirah Campaign
Part of North West Frontier Campaigns
Date:	10 June 1897-April 1898
Location:	Tirah, NWF
Presidency:	Bengal
Co-ordinates:	33.798237°N 70.135386°E
Result:	Submission of tribes
Combatants
British & Indians	Afridi & Orakzai tribesmen
Commanders
Lt Gen Sir William Lockhart
Strength
British Officers 1,010 British Troops 10,882 Indian Troops 22,614 Total 34,506 Non-combatants 19,934	40-50,000
Casualties

The Tirah Campaign took place in 1897-98.

Campaign Actions

Battle of Samana Ridge Aug-Sept 1897
Battle of Dargai Heights Oct 1897

Tirah Field Force

FIRST DIVISION

Commander: Brig-Gen William Penn Symons
First Brigade
Col I.S.M.Hamilton CB DSO
Succeeded by Brig Gen R.Hart VC CB

• 2nd Batt Derbyshire Regt
• 1st Batt Devonshire Regt
• 30th (Punjab) Bengal Native Infantry
• 2nd Batt 1st Gurkha Rifles
• No 6 British Field Hospital
• No 34 Native Hospital
  

Second Brigade
Commander: Brig Gen A.Gaselee CB

• 2nd Batt Yorkshire Regt
• 1st Batt Royal West Surrey Regt
• 3rd Sikhs
• 2nd Batt 4th Gurkha Rifles
• Two sections No 8 British Field Hospital
• Two sections No 14 British Field Hospital
• No 51 Native Hospital
  

Divisional Troops

• Two Squadrons 18th Bengal Lancers
• No 1 Mountain Battery Royal Artillery
• No 1 (Kohat) Mountain Battery
• No 2 (Dejarat) Mountain Battery
• Two Coys Bengal Sappers & Miners
• One Printing Section Bengal Sappers & Miners
• 28th Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry
• Nabha Regt Imperial Service Infantry
• Mala Kotla Imperial Service Sappers
• One Section No 13 British Field Hospital
• No 63 Native Field Hospital
  

SECOND DIVISION

Commander: Maj-Gen A G Yeatman-Biggs
Third Brigade
Brig Gen F.J.Kempster DSO

• 1st Batt Gordon Highlanders
• 1st Batt Dorsetshire Regt
• 15th Sikhs
• 1st Batt 2nd Gurkhas
  

Fourth Brigade
Brig Gen R.Westmacott CB DSO

• 2nd Batt King's Own Scottish Borderers
• 1st Batt Northamptonshire Regt
• 36th Sikhs
• 1st Batt 3rd Gurkha Rifles
  

Divisional Troops

• Two Squadrons 18th Bengal Lancers
• No 8 Mountain Battery Royal Artillery
• No 9 Mountain Battery Royal Artillery
• No 5 (Bombay) Mountain Battery
• Machinegun Detachment 16th Lancers
• No 4 Coy Madras Sappers and Miners
• One Printing Section Madras Sappers and Miners
• 21st Madras Infantry (Pioneers)
• Jhind Regt Imperial Service Infantry
• Sirmur Imperial Service Sappers
• One Section British Field Hospital
• One Native Field Hospital
  

Recommended Reading

Campaigns of the North-West Frontier by Capt H.L.Nevill DSO 1916
Reprinted by The Naval & Military Press Ltd 2005
ISBN 1-845741-87-0
The 1912 edition is available online, refer below.

External links

• North West Frontier Military History Wikipedia
  
• NWF Expeditions www.antiquesatoz.com
  
• Tirah Campaign Wikipedia
  
• Tirah Campaign description on roll-of-honour.com
  
• Lieut MacLean VC Wikipedia
  
• Lt-Col Robert Adams VC Wikipedia
  
• Lieut Alexander Murray VC Wikipedia
  
• The Devonshire Regiment and the Tirah Campaign from Devon heritage
  
• Pathan Revolt – 1897 Globalsecurity.org
  
• "The 1897 Revolt and Tirah Valley Operations from the Pashtun Perspective" by Robert A Johnson November 2009 Tribal Analysis Center
  
• "Khyber during the Frontier Uprising of 1897: Lessons to Learn from the British Policy in the Tribal Areas" by Dr Javed Iqbal Central Asia Journal No. 64 [c 2009?] University of Peshawar, now archived.
  
• The Tirah Campaign: Recollections of Surgeon Captain A.E. Masters Queensroyalsurreys.org
  
• Tirah: Photographic Journalism (Part 1). The first part of a photograph album published by Black and White Publishing in 1899. “...includes photography of war fighting, camps, mountain terrain, war dead, the Gordon Highlanders in action, wounded soldiers and gun batteries” King’s College London Collections. This book is also available at the National Army Museum, London titled "Black and white war albums : No. 3 : the Tirah campaign", catalogue No: 22336. Photographs by Rene Bull.
• Photographs: The Tirah Campaign bonhams.com Click on the small picture to enlarge.

Historical books online

• The Pathan Revolt in North-West India by H. Woosnam Mills 1897 Archive.org
  
• The Campaign in Tirah 1897-98: An Account of the Expedition Against the Orakzais and Afridis under General Sir William Lockhart, GCB, KCSI by Col H D Hutchinson 1898 Archive.org
  
• The Indian Frontier War being an account of the Mohmund and Tirah expeditions, 1897 by Lionel James 1898 Archive.org
  
• Lockhart's advance through Tirah by Leonard Julius Shadwell 1898 Archive.org
  
• With The Peshawar Column, Tirah Expeditionary Force by Richard Gillham Thomsett, RAMC 1899 Archive.org
• Lieutenant-Colonel John Haughton, commandant of the 36th Sikhs:a hero of Tirah. A memoir by Major A.C. Yate 1900 Archive.org
  
• Tirah Imperial Gazetteer of India 1908 Archive.org
  
• Tirah, 1897 by Colonel C E Callwell 1911 HathiTrust Digital Library. A book in the series Campaigns and their Lessons. Also available Archive.org, mirror from Digital Library of India.
• Campaigns on the North-West Frontier by Capt H.L.Nevill DSO 1912 Archive.org
• Tirah Campaign. Pages 77-89 Khaki and Gown : an Autobiography by Field-Marshal Lord Birdwood 1941. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library.
• A short comment about the Tirah Campaign: Page 108 Under Ten Viceroys: the Reminiscences of a Gurkha by Major-General Nigel Woodyatt 1922 Archive.org
• "Report on the Surgical History of the Tirah Expeditionary Force 1897-98" by Lieutenant-Colonel HR Whitehead FRCS Eng, Royal Army Medical Corps, page 457 Army Medical Department Report for the Year 1897 Volume 39 1898 Archive.org. Includes comments on the "different kinds of rifles and guns used by the enemy and the peculiar wounds caused by each variety"
• Typescript diary formed of extracts from letters by Surgeon Captain Alfred E. Master, Army Medical Service, re campaigning with the Queens Regiment against the Afridi tribes on the North-West Frontier of India (The Tirah Campaign). Wellcome Library Digital Collection, catalogue reference RAMC/185.
• Fiction: Through Three Campaigns: a Story of Chitral, Tirah, and Ashanti by G. A. Henty , illustrated by Wal Paget. c 1904 Archive.org. An adventure story for younger readers.