[Photographs of Afghanistan and the North West Frontier during the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919 and the Waziristan Campaign in 1919-1920].

Small folio album (oblong/landscape). Containing forty-one platinum prints, each 24x29cm, all in very good, largely un-faded condition. Numerous photographs signed ‘Holmes’ on the negative. Ms. captions below each print (also on three empty pages, suggesting the loss of three photographs). Contemporary beige cloth, sensitively rebacked. Peshawar:

The photographs in this album were taken by Randolph Bezzant Holmes (1888-1973), a commercial photographer based in Peshawar, who lived in the province for over fifty years.

Employed as an official photographer of the Third Anglo-Afghan War, Holmes travelled with the British Colonial Army throughout the North-West Frontier, creating striking images of the landscapes, military encampments and tribespeople of that volatile region.

The present collection represents three periods of conflict: The Third Anglo-Afghan War, a post-war period of conflict with the Mahsud tribespeople and the Waziristan Campaign (in which British and Indian forces subdued the Mahsuds and Waziris).

It includes four particularly fine images of the Mahsud, who were regarded as the hardiest and most adept warriors that the British forces encountered. The captions label one group as “Spies” and another “Woodcutters”.

Stock Code: 221626