Preface to Second Edition

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

Altadena 2011

The present second edition of this work was completed by 1994, but not then puiblished for several reasons. The principal reason for this was because the primarily manuscript records used had been microfilmed, printed (as copyflow), and bound in several volumes. This work had been carelessly done; pages of records had been skipped by the microfilmer/s and because the original documents had been bound in thick gatherings and in many places the data in the gutters was blurred or entirely invisible. The original manuscripts were made available to me only a single day, and this did not allow me sufficient time to clarify much of the data missing from the microfilms. In this and in other researches I found the India Office and records, as Brian Robson reported to me, “unhelpful.” Further requests to work with the original manuscripts, as briefly and carefully as possible, were denied on the grounds that they were too fragile to be used. I was able, however, during the brief time (a single day only) I was allowed to examine them to observe that the pages had undergone recent conservation which, in many places had been done as carelessly as the original microfilming. Light numbering of the pages in pencil did not conform to the original light pencil numbering, and in many places the fragile folded or torn corners and/or edges had simply been brushed away and many pages were less complete than at the date of the microfilm print, or the microfilm from which it had been made. Hence, a number of names, or additional data contained in the manuscripts now no longer exist in the original manuscripts. I delayed publication of this second edition in the hope that eventual retirement of members of staff might furnish, in the India Office Library and Records, an opportunity to complete my work with the original manuscripts, that it might be possible under more generous and understanding staff, especially after the India Office Library and Records was transferred to the newly constructed British Library as part of the India and Oriental Collections (IOC). This was not, however, forthcoming, even after the retirement and subsequent death of Anthony Farrington, (a scholar who certainly well understood the necessity to work with manuscripts) and who had earlier been the chief obstructionist to my work.

A continuing disappointment is the lack of photographs that surely were taken during the war and which I feel certain still reside in private collections. John Burke is the only professional photographer whose work exists, probably in its entirety, in several publications, libraries, museums, and usually less complete sets in private collections. We know there were a great number of photographs taken, but probably most of these are the work of professional photographers employed by English language newspapers published in the major cities of India. We know also from mention in contemporary books and diaries that a great many more photographs were taken. The smaller, more portable, camera was quite new and a novelty at the time of the war and that many men in service during the war carried cameras and took photographs wherever they were stationed. Yet, hardly any of what must be many hundreds, if not thousands, of photographs have been discovered. We know, for instance, that prominent military and civilians with cameras were in Kandahar -- Maj. Augustus Le Messurier, Royal Engineers, Surg.-Maj. Wilkins Sandom Whylock, M.D., Army Medical Department (Bengal), Mr. Carl Ludolf Griesbach, Survey of India, Brig.-Gen. Charles M. Mac Gregor, Surg. William Owen, Indian Medical Department (who later accompanied the party establishing the Afghanistan-Russian borderline), Benjamin Simpson, M.D., Bengal Medical Department, and doubtless many junior officers -- who altogether took hundreds of photographs within and around the city, but the only photographs we have are those of B. Simpson, in uncertainly complete and very rare sets taken in the months between the end of the war (1 Sept. 1880) and the evacuation of the troops in late April 1881.

The present edition, therefore, is still an incomplete record of the names and contains errors and lacunae. However, the annotations to other sources, records of photographs, books and articles on, or by, those listed here, burial sites of those killed in action or died from wounds or disease, constitutes the most complete record likely to be available for many years. During the years separating the first and second editions which contained the names of officers only, Brian Robson, CB, strongly urged me to undertake an edition containing the names of all non-commissioned officers and men for the sake not only of military historians, but for many families who often have made inquiries of the British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia about relatives they believed had participated in the war. My regret is that this brilliant and prolific writer on military history did not live to see this work in print. He was not only a friend, but a mentor, as well as my best critic, and is sorely missed.. His last work, on the British war with China during the 1860s, was almost complete at the time of his death.