36th Sikhs on the ruins of Saragarhi which was captured and destroyed by Pathan tribesmen in 1897

Photograph, North West Frontier, India, 1906.

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.

From an album of 100 photographs compiled by David Henry Drake-Brockman, 1897-1909.