Dr. William Brydon – The sole survivor

During the 1800’s the British army was involved in many countries around the world they shouldn’t have been in, and one of these countries was Afghanistan. During the year 1839, the British army occupied the city of Kabul in an attempt to help a friendly ruler come to power who would support Britain instead of Russia, the other superpower interested in securing the region.

At the time the British army was one of the most powerful and well-equipped armies in the world and the initial occupation went reasonably smoothly. The advanced weapons of the British and their disciplined fighting style meant they faced very little resistance and managed to take the city quite quickly, but this was only the start of their problems.

Everyone knew what was going on and the ruler the British put into power wasn’t accepted by the population and tensions between the locals and the British began to sour. Over the next two years, things got so bad that the British decided to abandon the campaign and retreat back to friendly territory, but by now they had annoyed far too many locals and found themselves chased out of the city.

A convoy made up of approximately 12,000 civilians and 4,500 soldiers started their march towards India where the empire had a much stronger presence and could offer safety. The problem was that the journey would be over 400 miles and included moving through valleys and mountain ranges, something that worried the officers with the ever-increasing group of locals following them.

It didn’t take long before the attacks started on the convoy. At first, it was small groups of locals trying their luck with quick raids and the occasional pop shot from a lone shooter, but after word got out that the hated British army was vulnerable and marching through ambush territory it didn’t take long before thousands showed up.

To make matters worse the convoy was moving very slowly and faced temperatures below freezing passing through the mountains, making them even easier targets than they were before. The attacks began to intensify until they changed from angry locals into two actual forces which were the Ghilzai people and a local Afghan warlord named Muhammad Akbar.

The Ghilzai people were the largest Pashtun tribe in the country and have at times been its rulers and are well known for their fighting skills, making them a serious threat to the British. Only five days after the convoy left Kabul the constant attacks had reduced their numbers to a little over 4,500 people, most of which were still soldiers.

They had barely travelled more than 70 miles in those five days and making it to India alive simply wasn’t going to happen. What was left of the convoy decided to head to Jalalabad, a city occupied by British forces who could rescue them, but unfortunately for the convoy, the British at Jalalabad had no idea they were in trouble and stayed put.

In one of the forward groups was an army surgeon named Dr. William Brydon who was traveling at the front of the convoy and riding a pony that was badly wounded. He was with a group of about a dozen soldiers who were all trying to make it to the friendly city on their own, knowing the rest of the convoy was doomed.

Over the next day, he moved as fast as he could on his wounded pony until it died, forcing him to walk with his own serious wounds. The rest of the soldiers he was with were all killed in attacks but Dr. William Brydon managed to either fend off or escape the ambushes along the route. It’s even said that he lost his sword during one fight but somehow still managed to escape alive from it. By either pure luck or outrunning his attackers, the Doctor managed to make it to Jalalabad where he was spotted by the wall guards who came to his aid.

Out of the 14,500 people who left Kabul in the British convoy, Dr. William Brydon is the only known survivor.