British officers of the 32nd Pioneers relaxing in Afghanistan, while Sikh and other Indian servants and soldiers are made to stand in the background, 1880. Photograph, 2nd Afghan War (1878-1880), 1880 (c). National Army Museum.
Source
Indian Soldiers, including Sikhs, boarding a train to Peshawar on their way to Afghanistan to fight in the Second Anglo-Afghan War for their British masters. Painting by Walter Charles Horsley, made in 1878.
A loyal and obedient Sikh orderly serving as a human shield for his British master, General Roberts, protecting him from bullets during the Battle of Kandahar in Afghanistan on 1st September 1880.
Source. The 'Orderly', though enlisted as a soldier in the British-Indian Army, served as a servant or attendant to the officer.
General Frederick Roberts wrote about his Sikh orderlies: "My orderlies...displayed such touching devotion that it is with feelings of the most profound admiration and gratitude I call to mind their self-sacrificing courage. On this occasion (as on many others) they kept close round me, determined that no shot should reach me; and on my being hit in the hand by a spent bullet, and turning to look round in the direction it came from, I beheld one of the Sikhs standing with his arms stretched out trying to screen me from the enemy, which he could easily do, for he was a grand specimen of a man, a head and shoulders taller than myself." Source
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