Rare British India documents surface
Documents and papers shown to the BBC by a relation of the commander of British troops during the 1897 siege of Malakand - in what is now Pakistan's North West Frontier Province - provide a fascinating new insight into the struggle for South Asia.
The papers belong to Ben Tottenham, a relation by marriage of William Hope Meiklejohn, who commanded British and Indian troops at the Malakand garrison, which was besieged by thousands of tribesmen for 10 days before it was successfully relieved.
Colonel Meiklejohn's four-year-old daughter, Meg - Mr Tottenham's mother-in-law - was in the garrison throughout the siege in the scorching heat of the high summer of 1897. She would almost certainly have been killed by the tribesmen - not renowned for taking prisoners - if it had fallen.
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The papers belong to Ben Tottenham, a relation by marriage of William Hope Meiklejohn, who commanded British and Indian troops at the Malakand garrison, which was besieged by thousands of tribesmen for 10 days before it was successfully relieved.
Colonel Meiklejohn's four-year-old daughter, Meg - Mr Tottenham's mother-in-law - was in the garrison throughout the siege in the scorching heat of the high summer of 1897. She would almost certainly have been killed by the tribesmen - not renowned for taking prisoners - if it had fallen.