by Richard D. Lesh
Watson, come here; I want you" were the first words heard over telephone lines, and oddly enough they were spoken by a Dr. Bell. Another Dr. Bell, so it is said, was the prototype for Holmes. The clamour for Watson and Holmes has increased through the years and it is hoped that this trifling monograph may shed some light on the Afghan travels of the biographer of Mr. Sherlock Holmes. The Canon is rather precise in chronicling the travels of Dr. Watson in England and on the continent, but strangely vague concerning his travels while attached to the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers and the Berkshires 66th Foot as an assistant surgeon during the Second Afghan War. This is a becoming modesty of the dear doctor.
In June 1878 Watson took his degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of London and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the Army. Having completed his studies there, he was in November attached to the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers as Assistant Surgeon. His regiment was stationed in India at the time, and before he could join it the Second Afghan War had broken out. On landing at Bombay, Watson learned his corps had advanced over the passes and was deep in the enemy's country. It is safe to assume he then took, with numerous other officers who found themselves in the same position, a coastal steamer and disembarked at Karachi, the northern port of supply for the War. Here there were three choices up the Indus Valley toward the southwest passes. Assistant Surgeon Watson most certainly took the troop train run by Indus Valley State Railway to Sukkur, as the river steamers and camel caravans were much too tedious and were reserved for heavy cargo. A new railway ran from the Indus through Jacobabad to Sibi, a distance of some 159 miles. Here Watson was attached to one of the numerous camel and horse caravans supplying the troops beyond the passes.
It is most certain that Watson travelled to Dadar, close by, and entered that rocky arid defile known as Bolan Pass on his way to Quetta, 88 miles away. Here for the first time the caravan undoubtedly met the enemy in the form of murderous Ghazi raiders who would strike swiftly the lightly guarded encampments, terrorizing the native baggage escorts and then stealing horses and camels. the main command of the western sector of the Afghan operations was at Quetta, where the British Army in 1851 officially recorded temperatures of 140 F. It was here Watson caught up with the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers and began his duties. Dysentery and enteric fever (typhoid) were responsible for far more deaths among the troops than enemy action, and the temperatures were so unbearable that troop movements were almost impossible. The tents were like ovens all night. Heat exhaustion and dehydration were deadly. On one recorded patrol of 25 men travelling 40 miles in two day's journey, fourteen men perished of the heat.
But to the north of Candahar, if the temperatures were less severe, the situation was more critical, and for this reason Assistant Surgeon Watson was ordered to duty with the Berkshires 66th Foot at the post hospital at Candahar, some 155 miles into Afghan territory and under sporadic harassment by the fanatic Ghazis and Pathans. This was in the spring of 1880.
In June and July, reports of the spies of the British Puppet Sher Ali reported large Afghan troop concentrations and movements from Herat toward Farah. On 4 July, 1880 a British force of 2,453 men and a large baggage escort commanded by Brigadier-General Burrows left for the Helmand River near Girishk to take a stand against the advancing armies under Ayub Khan. The six companies of the Berkshires 66th Foot were commanded by the valiant Lt.-Col. James Galbraith, who was to fall at Maiwand.
Burrows was outflanked as Ayub Khan's main body of troops crossed the Helmand some 30 miles farther north than anticipated, at a point which is usually unfordable. Burrows was forced to retreat toward Candahar and regroup for a stand in a desert valley, just south of the village of Maiwand.
The rest is history--another Valley of Death--a one-day battle on the 27th of July 1880, in which the British were hopelessly outnumbered (eleven to one) and routed, giving the Afghans their greatest victory. Of 2,734 men, 1,139 perished-- more than half--on the retreat. The Berkshires were never more gallant, and Col. Galbraith, with 59 men and officers, fell together, Galbraith, colours in hand, rallying his men to the last.
It is little wonder Watson was wounded twice. He and about a hundred survivors pushed their way to a walled garden and made another stand until only two officers and eight men were left. Watson was wounded twice by Jezail bullets and saved from the murderous Ghazis by his faithful orderly, Murray, who joined the route, with Watson across a pack horse.
There were three routes of retreat. The most direct was across a desert without water holes, the second a mid-route with two watering places, and a third and longest route, which had ample water to sustain men and beasts, and across which, surely, the level-headed Murray saw Watson to safety. Watson, after reaching Candahar, was treated and within the week (July 31st) removed to the south by bullock cart to Quetta and back through the only available route open to British lines down to the Indus Valley; and then for some inexplicable reason he was sent by rail to Peshawur, the most distant command of the Afghan Operations in the extreme Northeast, some 700 miles, instead of being taken back down to the port of evacuation of Karachi.
At the base hospital at Peshawur he had rallied from his wounds when he was struck down with enteric fever and for months lay near death. Eventually a medical board dismissed him, and he was dispatched on Sunday, October 21st, from Karachi on the troopship Orontes and landed on Portsmouth jetty on Friday, November 26th.
With a small wound pension he naturally gravitated to London, eventually to share rooms with the Master and become the Boswell of the best-loved personality in contemporary literature.
And may Allah bless that unknown Afghan soldier whose poor aim fired shots not mortal to the Dear Doctor, allowing him to go to Sherlock Holmes.