Online Collection

The Online Collection showcases a selection of our objects for you to discover and explore. This resource will grow as the Museum's Collection is catalogued and computerised, and as new acquisitions are added.

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A Pathan sowar, 25th Cavalry (Frontier Force), 1908 (c)

Oil on canvas, by by Leila Kathleen Williamson (1859-1939), 1908 (c).

Pathans are an ethnic group from southern Afghanistan and the North West Frontier region of what is now Pakistan. They have strong tribal codes of honour and hospitality and are almost exclusively Muslim in religion. Famed for their traditional skills of hill warfare, many Pathan tribes, such as the Afridis, Orakzais and Waziris, fiercely resisted British-Indian forays into their mountain homelands. Yet the British were quick to appreciate their abilities and from the 1890s onwards made great efforts to recruit them into 'class' companies, squadrons and regiments of native militia.

NAM Accession Number

NAM. 1959-02-24-1

Copyright/Ownership

National Army Museum, Out of Copyright

Location

National Army Museum Sandhurst, Indian Army Memorial Room

Object URL

https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=1959-02-24-1

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