"Afghan Regular Army uniform reference" Topic

I've just created a new page on my Maiwand Day blog to showcase illustrations of Afghan Regular Army soldiers of the later 19th Century.

The original art is by Ian Heath, who has very kindly and generously given me permission to make this excellent but very hard to find work of his easily available to interested members of the wargaming/historically-minded public.

If interested yourself, please check it out here:

link

Thanks to you and Ian Heath both.

Excellent reference and my thanks to Ian Heath for helping.

First illustration shows an infantryman (1857) wearing a style similar to the British Sepoy.
Was this unique or common appearance for the (regular) Sikh infantry?

Cheers,
Robert

I remerber these!! Thank you for posting.

I think I may have a copy of these somewhere here.

Thank you mad from another mad and Ian Health for releasing these photos again. Like others I too had a copy but now lost in all the moves over the years. Now that Blue Moon is coming out with this range I can finally field this army.

Ditto on the thank you Gentlemen. had the illustrations in my old collection of WI which due to downsizing of my life I had to let go of. cheers guys.

Thanks for all the positive comments, I appreciate them, and to everyone who said thank you, you are very, very welcome, it's really my pleasure to have been able to help make those valuable but hard-to-find illustrations easily available. Madmike62, from one mad to another, I pass on a very specific "you're welcome"!

timurilank,

With regard to the illustration you refer to, it shows the standard dress and equipment of all the soldiers in a particular Afghan infantry regiment, as seen and written about by the British medical officer Henry Walter Bellew while visiting the city of Kandahar in 1857. The Afghan in question is definitely a "regular" soldier, but he's certainly not a Sikh. You're right to point out he's dressed very much like a British infantryman of the same or perhaps a slightly earlier era. This is no accident, as Afghan leaders and soldiers alike are said to have put great stock in the value of "redcoat" uniforms like those worn by their erstwhile British enemies/allies (depending on the exact year in question!), for intimidating their enemies.

UPDATE:

I'm happy to report that Ian Heath has sent me his revised CAPTIONS to go with his colour plates, incorporating his ongoing research into the subject of the Afghan Regular Army over the intervening 18 years.

The link at the top of this thread will take you to the new-and-improved version of the page on my blog, but if you don't want to have to scroll back up to the top of this page, kindly click right here:

link