William Brydon

William Brydon
Remnants of an Army by Elizabeth Butler
Born	October 10, 1811(1811-10-10) London
Died	March 20, 1873(1873-03-20) (aged 61) Scotland
Buried at	Rosemarkie churchyard
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Rank	Assistant Surgeon
Unit	Bengal Army
Battles/wars	First Anglo-Afghan War, Second Anglo-Burmese War, Indian Rebellion of 1857
Awards	CB
Relations	Major General Donald Macintyre VC (brother-in-law)

William Brydon CB (10 October 1811 – 20 March 1873) was an assistant surgeon in the British East India Company Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War and is famous for being the only member of an army of 4,500 men to reach safety in Jalalabad at the end of the long retreat from Kabul.

He was born in London of Scottish descent. He studied medicine at University College London and at the University of Edinburgh.

Massacre

The British Army began its retreat from Kabul in January 1842, following the killing of the two British representatives there. The nearest British garrison was in Jalalabad, 90 miles (140 km) away, and the army would need to go through mountain passes with the January snow hindering them.

4,500 military personnel under the command of Major-General William George Keith Elphinstone, and 12,000 civilian camp followers, including wives and children, set out for Jalalabad on 6 January 1842 with the understanding that they had been offered safe passage. Afghan tribesmen intercepted them and proceeded to massacre them during the next seven days.

Last stand of the 44th at Gandamak, painted by William Barnes Wollen

The final stand took place at Gandamak on the morning of 13 January 1842 in the snow. Twenty officers and forty-five British soldiers, mostly of the 44th Foot, found themselves surrounded on a hillock. The Afghans attempted to persuade the soldiers that they intended them no harm. Then the sniping began, followed by a series of rushes. Captain Souter wrapped the regimental colours around his body and was dragged into captivity with two or three soldiers. The remainder were shot or cut down. Only six mounted officers escaped. Of these, five were murdered along the road. On the afternoon of 13 January 1842 the British troops in Jalalabad, watching for their comrades of the Kabul garrison, saw a single figure ride up to the town walls. It was Dr Brydon. Part of his skull had been sheared off by an Afghan sword and he survived only because he had stuffed a copy of Blackwood's Magazine into his hat to fight the intense cold weather. The magazine took most of the blow, saving the doctor's life.^[1]

Brydon became widely, if inaccurately, famous for being the only European survivor of the entire contingent to have survived the Afghan attacks.^[2] In fact, he was not the only European to survive the retreat; more than 50 others were captured, and nearly all survived to be subsequently released, including Sir Robert Sale's wife, Lady Florentia Sale. Nor was Brydon the only European to survive the trek from Kabul to Jalalabad without spending time in captivity; by Brydon's own account a "Greek merchant", Mr Baness, also made it to Jalalabad, arriving two days after Brydon but surviving for only one day.

The episode was made the subject of a famous painting by the Victorian artist Lady Butler, who portrayed an exhausted Dr Brydon approaching the gates of the Jalalabad fort perched on his dying horse (which dropped dead upon arrival in the city).^[3] The painting is titled Remnants of an Army.

After the massacre

He fought in the Second Anglo-Burmese War of 1852, when Rangoon was taken.^[4]

In 1857, he was a regimental doctor at Lucknow and, along with his wife and children, survived his second siege, that of the Lucknow residency (June – November 1857), being badly wounded in the thigh at one stage. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in November 1858.^[5] His wife published a memoir of the siege. He died at his home Westfield near Nigg in Ross-shire^[4] on 20 March 1873. He is buried in Rosemarkie churchyard alongside his brother-in-law Donald MacIntyre VC^[6]

Sources

• Claire E. J. Herrick, "Brydon, William (1811–1873)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006 accessed 26 Aug 2006

References

1. ^ "Article in theaustralian.news.com". http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19721272-2703,00.html. Retrieved August 24, 2006. ^{[dead link]}
2. ^ "Transcripts from CNN". 7 February 2001. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0109/27/se.50.html. Retrieved August 24, 2006. 
3. ^ "Mention at theestimate.com". http://www.theestimate.com/public/100501_dossier.html. Retrieved August 24, 2006. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Obituary, 14 May (1932). "Brydon's daughter, Mrs Walter Scott". Irish Times. 
5. ^ London Gazette: no. 22201. p. 4855. 16 November 1858.
6. ^ Heroes ... and Others, Eric H Malcolm, Cromarty History Society, 2003, ISBN 1899416745

External links

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More spoken articles

• An article about William Brydon's report of the massacre
• The first Anglo-Afghan War : Dr Brydon's report of the British defeat
• Elizabeth Butler (Lady Butler) The Remnants of an Army 1879, Henry Tate Collection
• William Brydon – A Lecture to the History Group by Peter McLoughlin

Persondata
Name	Brydon, William
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	10 October 1811
Place of birth	London
Date of death	20 March 1873
Place of death	Scotland