Afghan Wars

Two Afghan wars in the 19th century are often quoted as a warning the Russians, then the US, UK and their allies and now perhaps China should have heeded.

The Third Afghan War, as we call it, or the War of Independence as it’s called in Afghanistan lasted only three months in the spring of 1919. However, the course it took was the usual one as far as Britain is concerned: a humiliating withdrawal and heavy losses followed by a successful retaliation and a treaty that more or less kept the peace until Partition. There was one heroic episode now largely forgotten.

Guy Hamilton Russell (1882-1958) was commissioned into the Indian Army in 1902. Promoted to major in 1917, he was in command of the South Waziristan Militia at Wana when the 3rd Afghan War (1919) began. The Militia subsequently mutinied and Russell and 300 loyal men had to fight their way to safety from Wana to Fort Sandeman via Mir Ali Khel between 26-30 May 1919. During their epic retreat they sustained 40 men killed and wounded. Of the eight British officers, five were killed and two (including Russell) were wounded. Russell was awarded the DSO for his leadership during the retreat. He was later promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1926 and colonel in 1931. That year he was appointed Inspecting Officer of the Frontier Militia, a post he held until 1935. (National Army Museum)

He was later appointed Companion, Order of the Indian Empire, and awarded the Military Cross; a real Richard Hannay.

One man who did not forget was Wallace Breem (1926 – 1990). He was a senior librarian at the Inner Temple Law Library; prior to which, aged eighteen, he went to the Indian Army’s Officers’ Training School at Quetta. In 1945 he was commissioned into the Guides Cavalry serving on the North West Frontier in armoured cars. The unit was formed in 1846 as the Corps of Guides with an inspirational mission to recruit –

Trustworthy men, who could, at a moment’s notice, act as guides to troops in the field; men capable, too, of collecting trustworthy intelligence beyond, as well as within, our borders; and, in addition to all this, men, ready to give and take hard blows, whether on the frontier or in a wider field. (The Story of the Guides, Col GJ Younghusband, 1908)

A tenuous link between Hamilton Russell leading a wholesome life gulping in buckets of fresh air on the NW Frontier and Breem snuffling in the dusty Inner Temple library has been established but what of it? Breem turned his hand to historical fiction and, after two successful novels about the armies of the Roman Empire (a genre called sandals and swords), remembered his own military service and his regiment’s part in the retreat from Waziristan. His historical novel depicting this is still in print: The Leopard and the Cliff.

It is a rattling good yarn but more than that it is written without condescending to the reader. If, like me, you have never been to the North West Frontier it is most authentic. There is a glossary of local language and an informed, detailed description of tribal loyalties. It is a worthy tribute to the gallant Guy Hamilton Russell.