British cemetery in Kandahar, 1881

European cemetery; graves of British soldiers (who died fighting the Afghans) in Kandahar, Afghanistan, 1880 (c). Photo by Benjamin Simpson during British occupation of Kandahar (September 1880 – April 1881).

Only commissioned and non-commissioned officers of the British Army were buried in this cemetery; others were interred in mass graves. Kandaharis did not desecrate the graves after the British left in April 1881. Captain A.C. Yate, who visited Kandahar in 1887, reported that the British cemetery had been treated with every respect by the locals.

Graves of British invaders at Maiwand, Afghanistan, 1880. Illustration for The Illustrated London News, 30 October 1880.

The normal-sized grave with a cross belongs to Major G.P. Blackwood, while the larger one beside it is a mass grave containing 40 soldiers of lower rank. The correspondent of The Illustrated London News noted that Afghans did not desecrate graves of British invaders from the First Anglo-Afghan War (1842) and expressed hope that those from the Battle of Maiwand would likewise remain intact.