Major Cavagnari with Sirdars and Kunae Synd, 1878 circa (b/w photo)

Major Cavagnari with Sirdars and Kunae Synd, 1878 circa. Photograph by John Burke, 2nd Afghan War (1878-1880), 1878 circa. Major Pierre Louis Napoleon Cavagnari (1841-1879) was born in France, the son of an Italian Bonapartist army officer, and despite his British naturalisation in 1857, remained something of an adventurer until his death. He served with the East India Army in the 1st Bengal Fusiliers and then transferred into the political service, becoming Deputy Commisssioner at Peshawar. As a favourite of the Viceroy of India, Lord Lytton, he negotiated the Treaty of Gandamak on 26 May 1878 with the Afghan Amir Yakub Khan. The Amir was forced to accept Cavagnari as the British envoy resident in Kabul and consent to British control of Afghanistan’s foreign policy. Cavagnari was knighted and arrived in Kabul in July 1878. Here he is pictured (seated centre) meeting several of the sirdars (tribal leaders) of Kabul whose support for the peace treaty was crucial. Cavagnari’s arrogant behaviour and subsequent misreading of the situation meant that within two months, he and his 75-strong escort of the Queen’s Own Guides would be murdered by mutinous Afghan soldiers. From a collection compiled by Surgeon Henry Walter Bellew.