The Bala Hissar, 1879

Photograph by John Burke, 2nd Afghan War (1878-1880), 1879.

After the murder of Sir Louis Cavagnari and his escort at the British residency in Kabul on 3 September 1879, Major-General Frederick Sleigh Roberts (1832-1914), who had led his Kurram Field Force to victory at Peiwar Kotal the previous December, was ordered to lead a new Kabul Field Force to the Afghan capital. Roberts occupied Kabul on 8 October and set about executing those involved in Cavagnari's murder; the gallows were erected in the burnt-out residency building within the Bala Hissar, Kabul's ancient citadel.

From an album of 101 photographs by John Burke.