William Brydon CB (10 October 1811 – 20 March 1873) was a British doctor who was assistant surgeon in the Bengal Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, famous for reportedly being the only member of an army of 4,500 men, plus 12,000 accompanying civilians, to reach safety in Jalalabad at the end of the 1842 retreat from Kabul.
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👉 William Brydon in the context of Remnants of an Army
The Remnants of an Army, Jellalabad, January 13, 1842, better known as Remnants of an Army, is an oil-on-canvas painting by Elizabeth Thompson, Lady Butler, from 1879. It depicts William Brydon, assistant surgeon in the Bengal Army, arriving at the gates of Jalalabad in January 1842. The walls of Jalalabad loom over a desolate plain and riders from the garrison gallop from the gate to reach the solitary figure bringing the first word of the fate of the "Army of Afghanistan".
Supposedly Brydon was initially thought to be the only survivor of the approximately 16,000 soldiers and camp followers from the 1842 retreat from Kabul in the First Anglo-Afghan War, and is shown toiling the last few miles to safety on an exhausted and dying horse. A few other stragglers from the army arrived later, and larger numbers were eventually released or rescued after spending time as captives of Afghan forces.
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William Brydon in the context of Wazir Akbar Khan
Mohammad Akbar Khan Barakzai, (11 November 1817 – 10 December 1847) famously known as Wazir Akbar Khan, was a Barakzai prince and military commander who served as Emir of Afghanistan from December 1842 to April 1843. He also served as vizier and heir apparent to his father, Emir Dost Mohammad Khan, until his death in 1847.
Wazir Akbar Khan's fame began with the 1837 Battle of Jamrud. He was militarily active in the First Anglo-Afghan War, which lasted from 1839 to 1842. He is prominent for his leadership of the national party in Kabul from 1841 to 1842, and his massacre of Elphinstone's army at the Gandamak pass before the only survivor, the assistant surgeon William Brydon, reached the besieged garrison at Jalalabad on 13 January 1842. Wazir Akbar Khan became the emir of Afghanistan in May 1842, and ruled until Dost Mohammad Khan's return in 1843. In 1847 Wazir Akbar Khan died of cholera.