A Beluchi Beggar, Kandahar, 1880

Photograph by Benjamin Simpson (1831-1923), 2nd Afghan War (1878-1880), 1880.

Kandahar, in south-east Afghanistan, had been captured by the British without a struggle on 8 January 1879. Until the summer of 1880 the occupation was relatively uneventful but following Ayub Khan's victory at Maiwand on 27 July, the Kandahar force was besieged. The siege was lifted when Major-General Sir Frederick Roberts led a force from Kabul to Kandahar. On 1 September 1880 he defeated Ayub Khan outside Kandahar and relieved the garrison, effectively ending the war. Simpson took a remarkable series of photographs of Kandahar and its occupants in the weeks and months after Roberts' victory when the British occupation of the city was finally secure.

From an album of 34 photographs.