Tibetan casualty, 31 March 1904 (b/w photo)

Tibetan casualty, 31 March 1904. Photograph by Lieutenant G I Davys, Tibet Expedition (1903-1904), 1904. This poignant photograph of a dying Tibetan soldier was taken after the engagement at Chumik Shenko when General James Macdonald’s column, armed with maxim guns, easily defeated a Tibetan force of 3,000 men armed with primitive matchlock muskets and swords. The Tibetans had gathered behind a wall in order to stop the British advance on Lhasa. They suffered around 650 dead and 160 wounded. British casualties were 12 wounded. From an album of 201 photographs compiled by David Henry Drake-Brockman, 39th Garhwal Rifles, 1903-1904.