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William Wright at the battle of Maiwand Afghanistan July 1980

William Wright was born in Ashton, Manchester, enlisting as a Driver in the Royal Horse Artillery when he was 22 years 9 months old on12 January 1878. According to his attestation papers, Wright's previous trade was a carter. His statistics on attestation are shown below.

Age	22 years
Height	5 feet 4 inches
Chest Measurement	35.25 inches
Eyes	Hazel
Hair	Light Brown
Religion	Methodist

For the period from his attestation until 20 September 1878, Driver Wright was stationed in the UK. On 21 September 1878 Wright began a 7 year 86 day posting to India. It was during this period that Driver Wright took part in the battle at Maiwand, as a member of "E" Battery, "B" Brigade, Royal Horse Artillery; which from 1890 became 58th Field Battery Royal Artillery.

Battle of Maiwand

On 4 July 1880 the following force had left Kandahar for Helmund under the command of Brigadier-General G.R.S. Burrows:

Cavalry Brigade (Brigadier-General T. Nuttall)
"E" Battery, "B" Brigade, Royal Horse Artillery (Major Blackwood)
3rd Sind Horse
3rd Bombay Light Cavalry
Infantry Brigade (Brigadier-General G.R.S. Burrows)
66th Foot (Colonel Galbraith)
1st Bombay Grenadiers
30th Jacobs Rifles
Half Company Bombay Sappers & Miners

The approximate strength was 2700 men with 6 guns.

Brigadier-General G.R.S. Burrows became alarmed at both the size of Ayub Khan's army, and the fact that it may avoid his force and advance on to Maiwand and become between Burrow's force and Kandahar. In an attempt to prevent this situation, Burrows advanced to Maiwand, leaving early on 27 July 1880. However, unaware to Burrows, Ayub Khan numerically larger force was also marching to the same place at the same time. Burrows had not issued his march orders until late on the 26 July, and so when the force set off at 7am on 27 July, many of the troops had not even had breakfast.

The morning of 27 July 1888 began misty and foretold that the weather for later in the day would be extremely sunny and very hot. Shortly after Burrows force had passed Mashak, while it halted to water, Burrows learnt that he had been outmanoeuvred and that the whole of Ayub Khan's force (approximately 6000 infantry and 4000 cavalry) was marching across his front to Maiwand. Despite of this information, Burrows continued his advance to Maiwand.

At approximately 10:30, shortly after Burrows' force had passed the village of Mahmudabad, the advance guard of cavalry began to engage Ayub Khan's force. At this point, Brigadier-General Nuttall and Major Blackwood rode forward to reconnoitre, accompanied by Lieutenant Fowell's division of E/B Royal Horse Artillery. Once they had advanced forward, large masses of Ayub Khan's force became visible and the desperate nature of the situation quickly became apparent. Nuttal ordered his cavalry to fall back, while Burrows ordered the rest of his force to close up.

At about 11:45 Ayub Khan's force attempted to encircle the British line from the north and the right. Burrows realised that his advance guard was in grave danger of being surrounded, so his advanced his infantry and deployed them into a line from E/B Battery Royal Horse Artillery.

By 13:30 the situation had deteriorated further with Ayub Khan's guns now firing into the main part of the Burrows force. The ammunition for the guns had begun to run low and several officers had been either killed or badly injured. Also several soldiers had fallen back in an attempt to get some water.

At 14:30 Ayub Khan gave the signal for a general advance by his forces. The frontal attack was stopped by E/B Battery firing "grape shot" which took a huge toll of Ayub Khan's infantry. However, another advance from the right and across the guns of E/B Battery occurred. Lieutenant Fowell had been wounded, and Captain Slade was controlling the fire of the guns on the right flank when he became aware of events rapidly developing on his left flank. Slade had just ordered his guns to limber up (ready to be pulled back) when an enemy force swept into his left flank. Both the guns here were captured and most of their crews were killed.

Saving the guns

Saving the guns at Maiwand

The leader of the No. 2 gun team was shot while limbering up, and it was at this time that Sergeant Mullane managed to not only limber up his gun and get it away but also picked up Driver Pickwell Istead (who later died from his wounds) and placed him on the limber.

For this act of gallantry, Sergeant Mullane received one of two Victoria Cross medals award to members of "E" Battery, "B" Brigade for deeds performed at Maiwand. The other Victoria Cross was awarded to Gunner James Collis who deliberately exposed himself to enemy fire, allowing an officer to bring back a gun limber bearing wounded men.

In addition to these two Victoria Cross medal, E/B Battery members were also awarded 8 Distinguished Conduct Medals and Captain Slade received the Companion of the Bath (CB) honour.

4485 Driv: W. Wright. E.B Bde. R.H.A

For his participation in this campaign Driver Wright received the Afghanistan Medal with "Kandahar" clasp.

The obverse and reverse sides of Driver Wright's Afghanistan medal

After Maiwand, Driver Wright went on to complete 12 years service in the Army. He was discharged from the Army at Woolwich on 16 January 1890.

Service Papers

Extract from Driver Wright's Service Papers

The most famous (fictional) character at the battle of Maiwand was Dr John Watson, Sherlock Holmes' partner. He was attached to the Berkshires from the 5th Northumberland Fusiliers. He was wounded and invalided home, the rest is history.

The most famous Docter on the reyreat From Kabul was a Dr William Brydon who unlike watson was a real person

William Brydon

William Brydon
1811-1873
Allegiance	British Army
Rank	Assistant Surgeon
Battles/wars	First Anglo-Afghan War

Remnants of an Army by Elizabeth Butler.

William Brydon CB (10 October 1811 �?20 March 1873) was an assistant surgeon in the British Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War and is famous for being the only (European) survivor of an army of 16,500 men.

He studied medicine at University College London and at the University of Edinburgh.

The war

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 away, and the army would need to go through mountain passes with the January snow hindering them.

16,500 British and Indian soldiers, along with a few civilians, wives and children set out for Jalalabad on 6 January to chance their way out of the morass. The Afghan soldiers intercepted them and proceeded to massacre them during the next seven days. A small number of prisoners were taken and returned to the British at a later date. Many of the Indian soldiers and camp followers captured were enslaved and only few found their way home again. This was one of the very few comprehensive defeats that the British Army suffered in South Asia, and has become the stuff of legends. This also became the reason why the West still gives respect to the Pathans and Afghans for being a 'martial race'. ^{[citation needed]}

On 13 January, Dr. Brydon rode, alone, up to the gates of Jalalabad. He became famous for being the only European survivor of the entire contingent to have escaped the Afghan guerrillas.^[1] Part of his skull had been sheared off by an Afghan sword. In fact, 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.^[2]

The episode was made the subject of a famous painting by the Victorian artist, Lady Elizabeth Butler, who portrayed Dr. Brydon hobbling to the gates of the Jalalabad fort perched on his dying horse.^[3] The painting is titled Remnants of an Army.

In 1857, he was a regimental doctor at Lucknow and survived his second siege, that of the Lucknow residency (June �?November 1857), being badly wounded in the thigh at one stage. His wife published a memoir of the siege.

Sources

Claire E. J. Herrick, "Brydon, William (1811�?873)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006 accessed 26 Aug 2006

References

^ Transcripts from CNN. Retrieved on August 24, 2006.
^ Article in theaustralian.news.com. Retrieved on August 24, 2006.
^ Mention at theestimate.com. Retrieved on August 24, 2006.

External links

Much is made of Dr Brydon being the "only survivor" when in fact they were many more. He was the only one to complete the march from Kabul to Kandahar. Hundreds more were captured en route and were released later.

Yes you are correct about the other survivours how ever As you say he was the only man to survive the march from Kabul to Jelallahbad. The march you mention was the later punative expidition led by Field Marshall 'Bobs' Foberts VC in August 1880. See;

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