Royal Irish Rifles Maxim gun detachment in Tibet, 1904

Photograph, Tibet Expedition (1903-1904), 1904.

A small force from 2nd Battalion The Royal Irish Rifles served in Tibet attached to the 1st Battalion The Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment), the main British part of Major Francis Younghusband's Tibet force.

The Tibet expedition was launched to forestal any possible Russian interference in a buffer state to British India. The 3,000-strong British Indian force marched on Lhasa, easily defeating Tibet's poorly armed army, and dictated a treaty to the state's rulers.