'Candahar', 1879 (c)

Watercolour sketch from the disbound album by Lieutenant John Frederick Irwin, 59th (2nd Nottinghamshire) Regiment.

After negotiating the Bolan Pass, Lieutenant-General Donald Stewart's force encountered little hostile resistance on their march to Kandahar which was captured without a struggle on 8 January 1879. Irwin painted this view of the British cantonment in the months that followed when the occupation of the city was relatively uneventful, but following Ayub Khan's victory at Maiwand on 27 July 1880 the Kandahar force was besieged. In the background is the eminence of Baba Wali dominating the north-western approaches to the city.