Mrs Mandeep Kaur, the Sikh Chaplain to HM Armed Forces, Saragarhi Day, 2015

Digital photograph by Sergeant Rupert Frere, Royal Logistic Corps, 2016.

The photograph was taken during a ceremony at the Honourable Artillery Company Museum in London to commemorate the Battle of Saragarhi, fought in 1897 on the North West Frontier of India.

On 12 September 1897, during the Tirah Force Expedition, 21 soldiers of the 36th (Sikh) Regiment of Bengal Infantry fought a desperate last ditch stand to defend a British outpost at Saragarhi. Rather than surrender to an overwhelming force of hostile Afghan tribesmen, the soldiers fought to the death. The defenders were all posthumously awarded the Indian Order of Merit.

Mrs Mandeep Kaur became the first Sikh Chaplain to the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom in 2005.