3-082-564 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Chitral Expedition, 1895. 'Sikh Priest. Lieut. Cheyne. Capt. C. R. Ross. Major Sawyer. Capt. Gordon. Lieut. Henderson. From a photograph by Captain Lovett, 2nd Battalion Gloucester Regiment. 'The sad calamity which recently befell a detachment of the 14th Ferozepore Sikhs, under Captain Claye R. Ross, lends especial interest to the accompanying photograph of a group with its officers. The regiment was raised in 1857 for service during the Mutiny by the late General Sir Campbell Claye Ross, father of the young officer who has just lost his life. General Ross commanded the 14th Sikhs for fourteen years. His son was on the way from Gilgit to Chitral, accompanied by quite a small detachment, with the intention of relieving Dr. Robertson. On March 10 the party was suddenly surprised at a defile on the river below Karagh by a band of tribesmen, at least ten times their superior in point of numbers. Captain Ross and his men tried to retire to Boni, but nearly fifty of the detachment were killed by rocks hurled upon them. Captain Ross was hit by a stone and shot through the head'. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.