A native of Candahar, 1879 (c)

Watercolour sketch from the disbound album by Lieutenant John Frederick Irwin, 59th (2nd Nottinghamshire) Regiment. Military career and life from RMC Sandhurst 1866 to the 2nd Afghan War (1878-1880).

Kandahar, in south-east Afghanistan, was captured by Lieutenant-General Donald Stewart's force without a struggle on 8 January 1879. Irwin painted this view of an Afghan riding a mule 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.