William Brydon

William Brydon CB (10 October 1811 – 20 March 1873) was an assistant surgeon in the British East India Company Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War and is famous for being the only European of an army of 4,500 men to reach safety in Jalallabad after the long retreat from Kabul.

He studied medicine at University College London and at the University of Edinburgh.

The war
The British Army began its retreat from Kabul in January 1842 following the killing of the two British representatives there. The nearest British garrison was in Jalalabad, 90 miles away, and the army would need to go through mountain passes with the January snow hindering them.

4,500 military personnel, and over 10,000 civilian camp followers including wives and children set out for Jalalabad on 6 January with the understanding that they had been offered safe passage. Afghan tribesmen intercepted them and proceeded to massacre them during the next seven days. A small number of prisoners were taken, these were freed by the British at a later date. Many of the Indian soldiers and camp followers captured were enslaved and only few found their way home again.

On 13 January, Dr. Brydon rode, alone, up to the gates of Jalalabad. He became famous for being the only European survivor of the entire contingent to have escaped the Afghan guerrillas. Part of his skull had been sheared off by an Afghan sword. In fact, he survived only because he had stuffed a copy of Blackwood's Magazine into his hat to fight the intense cold weather. The magazine took most of the blow, saving the doctor's life.

The episode was made the subject of a famous painting by the Victorian artist, Lady Elizabeth Butler, who portrayed Dr. Brydon hobbling to the gates of the Jalalabad fort perched on his dying horse. The painting is titled Remnants of an Army.

In 1857, he was a regimental doctor at Lucknow and survived his second siege, that of the Lucknow residency (June – November 1857), being badly wounded in the thigh at one stage. His wife published a memoir of the siege.