Discussion Post: A Study in Scarlet, Pt. 1

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Welcome to the very first discussion post for Round 5!

As you probably already know, the canon discussion post has been retired for this round and instead we will be looking at topics inspired by the stories.

This week, the canon story we’re looking at is A Study in Scarlet (part 1, chapters 1-7), and the chosen topic is The Battle of Maiwand.

This is naturally a complex subject. I will endeavour to give some facts here but I really can’t do the historical situation justice. If you are interested, I would urge you to go and read the source material—links are given at the end.


• The Battle of Maiwand took place 27th July 1880. It was one of the main battles of the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-1880).

• British and Indian troops led by Brigadier General Burrows fought against Ayub Khan, the Governor of Herat and his followers. Khan intended to replace the new Amir of Afghanistan, Abdur Rahman, who was a British protégé.

• The British and Indian troops consisted of 2,566 men; the Afghans consisted of 10,000 regular troops and 15,000 tribesmen.

• Out of the British and Indian troops, 962 died and 161 were wounded.

• Out of the Afghan troops, over 5,500 died and over 1,500 were wounded. (All these figures come from The British Empire.)

• Ayub Khan’s army was eventually defeated a month later by an army led by General Sir Frederick Roberts.



From my very limited reading, I gather the British and Indian troops were (obviously) hopelessly outnumbered. 6,000 tribesmen who had been loyal to the Wali of Kandahar (and therefore friendly to the British) changed sides and become loyal to Ayub Khan, and other tribesmen had joined him as his army marched.

The British and Indian troops had set off too late to reach Maiwand before Ayub Khan’s army got there. (They needed to reach Maiwand first to stop Ayub Khan getting to Kabul.) And they had had to pack up their camp before leaving, so the troops were tired even before they started marching. Also, the men hadn’t been fed before they set off into battle. There was the terrible heat to contend with and there wasn’t enough water. Some of the troops hadn’t had sufficient training. And the British and Indian troops weren’t familiar with the territory so Ayub Khan’s troops had the advantage there as well.



Dr. Watson states that he was “...attached to the Berkshires…” I assume this is the 66th (Berkshire) Regiment of Foot. They are famous for their doomed last stand in the battle.

A quotation taken from a section on the website The British Empire: The Destruction of the 66th, based on the account by Bryan Perrett in "Against All Odds!"

Even in the flush of their victory, the Afghans were awed by the end of the 66th. "Surrounded by most of the Afghan army, they fought on until only eleven men were left, inflicting enormous loss on the enemy", wrote one of Ayub's senior artillery officers. "These men charged out of the garden and died with their faces to the foe, their conduct was the admiration of all who witnessed it."

Watson would not have been part of this last stand, of course. The 66th was divided in some confusion just previous to this, and Watson may possibly have been wounded during the general retreat.


There is a memorial to the men from the 66th lost at Maiwand—in Forbury Gardens, in Reading in Berkshire: the Maiwand Lion. It was erected in 1886—I wonder if Watson ever went to see it. In SIXN, Mr. Sandeford lives in Reading but he comes to Baker Street—Holmes and Watson don’t go to visit him. However, in SHOS Shoscombe Old Place is in Berkshire, and we know Watson had “summer quarters” in the vicinity—though that might have been before Maiwand.



Some useful and interesting resources:

The Second Anglo-Afghan War 1878-1880

For the above website, you might specifically like to have a look at the article on Army Surgeons in the Afghan War, and the Did you know? section.

One fact from the Did you know? section that particularly caught my eye:

The Second Anglo-Afghan War was one of the earliest campaigns where British soldiers wore khaki in large numbers. As khaki-manufactured uniforms were not common, the soldiers had to make their own by dying their white summer uniforms with a variety of substances, including coffee, tea, curry powder, and all kinds of dyes - resulting in whole companies marching out in a variety of shades - from bright yellow to dark brown.

The British Empire

British Battles

British Military & Criminal History 1900 to 1999 This article tells you about a survivor of Maiwand and about the medal he was awarded.


Please feel free to discuss this topic in the comments.



Suggested by rachelindeed: Please also feel free to comment about the canon story itself or any related aspects outside this week’s theme. For example, any reactions, thoughts, theories, fic recs, favourite adaptations of the canon story… Or any other contribution you wish to make. Rachel also suggested offering fic prompts, so if you have any suggestions springing from this week's story, please feel free to share those in the comments as well.

Comments

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

One of those battles which would have conveniently been left out of sight except to military historians, were it not for a very famous ex-army doctor having been involved.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Must admit I wasn't keen on researching Maiwand - nobody enjoys reading about suffering. But I'm glad I did now - it's given me even greater respect for Watson and genuinely made me look at STUD in a new way.

[garonne.livejournal.com]

I only realised very recently that the Battle of Maiwand was a crushing defeat for the British. As rachelindeed pointed out in the poetry page, this must have had a significant psychological impact on Watson, especially given the very negative press the defeated British soldiers apparently got in Britain at the time. (Though it does sound like the 66th were also seen in a positive light, at least by some people.) I wonder if that has been explored in fic. ACD, at least, may well have had that in mind when writing about Watson's "comfortless, meaningless existence" after he was discharged.


rabidsamfan has an excellent fic about that Maiwand lion in Reading, here (http://archiveofourown.org/works/1032872).

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

That is a wonderful fic - thank you for directing me towards it. I was just saying to okapi - it may be an unintentional situation for Watson but visiting the memorial quietly with Holmes just seems so much more suitable for him than going through all the ceremonies.

Until last week I knew pretty much nothing about the battle of Maiwand - it was just "history" and I'd forgotten that actual people were involved in it. Doing some research has made it real to me. And it's genuinely made me look at STUD and Watson in a new light.

...the very negative press the defeated British soldiers apparently got in Britain at the time... ACD, at least, may well have had that in mind when writing about Watson's "comfortless, meaningless existence" after he was discharged. Watson certainly doesn't seem to come back to a hero's welcome.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Probably the closest that time came to something like Vietnam, and the shameful treatment of its returning veterans.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

All very interesting stuff!

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I have to say I've learnt such a lot in recent days - I didn't know anything about the battle or the wider situation before.

(Edit: My reply to you went through twice, so I deleted one of them.)

[debriswoman]

I would like to recommend this fic from Pompey...covers Watson's experiences at Maiwand and after, up to returning to London...well-researched and lots of period detail

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4029558/1/On-Afghanistan-s-Plains

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I've just read the first chapter - it looks really good ^^"

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm so happy to see this story recc'd here, I remember being so impressed when I first came across it years ago. It showcases really amazing research and such an immersive recreation of the place, I thought. Thanks for sharing it here!

[debriswoman]

Yes...I am glad I thought of it:-)

And, an article from Watson's favourite journal...

[debriswoman]

Hope this works...

http://www.bmj.com/content/343/bmj.d7406

Re: And, an article from Watson's favourite journal...

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

It did work and I enjoyed the article ^^ Interesting stuff. Thank you so much for the link.

I have to say regarding possible bias, surely it wasn't a good idea to ask the volunteers to write "RACHE"? That would immediately flag up what the experiment was about, if they were familiar with STUD. Then they might, consciously or unconsciously, either try to back up what Holmes states, or try and disprove what Holmes states.

RE: Re: And, an article from Watson's favourite journal...

[debriswoman]

Pleased you liked it...and, yes, a fair point...perhaps general knowledge of the significance of the word is not high?

Re: Re: And, an article from Watson's favourite journal...

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Well, I suppose it was unlikely every volunteer would be a Holmes fan ^_^ But STUD is such a well-known novel - I just would have thought they'd pick a similar but different word to try and avoid any bias.

Re: Re: And, an article from Watson's favourite journal...

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

An excellent point.

Re: And, an article from Watson's favourite journal...

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Delightful! Thank you for the link.

Re: And, an article from Watson's favourite journal...

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for posting this. I love this kind of stuff!!

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

I can imagine Holmes reading more about the Battle of Maiwand after it becomes necessary to his lumber room - sometime after January 1881 - and waking up in a cold sweat more than once for the rest of his life, thinking how very, very differently everything could have turned out.

Heh. Funny how certain figures, such as Malalai (a candidate for Rejected Princesses (rejectedprincesses.tumblr.com) for sure), don't get talked about much in regard to this conflict. (I wrote a drabble from the POV of the Afghani who shoots Watson, and he's there for the same reason any patriotic soldier would be - fighting off his homeland's invaders.) The more you read about British colonial behavior, the more you look at the stuff written at the time, shake your head, and mutter, "And we called THEM 'savages'?"

What gets me is that nobody ever, ever learns from history. Afghanistan was called "Graveyard of Empires" for a reason. Alexander the Great couldn't conquer the place in the 300s BCE - nor the British colonials in the 1880s, nor the Soviets in the 1980s. So of course MY country goes in, guns a-blazing, after 9/11...

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

What gets me is that nobody ever, ever learns from history. I have long since accepted that history goes round in circles, and that people never really change ^^"

I have to say that my (limited) research about the Second Anglo-Afghan War did leave me rather depressed and feeling sympathy for everyone involved. In the end it was all just politics and power plays.

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the wonderful links, scfrankles, I really look forward to reading more about this conflict.

I'm more familiar with the British army in the early rather than late 19th century, but I suspect it was still true that the regular infantrymen were publicly regarded with much more disdain than the officer class, of which Watson as a surgeon was part. I noticed that Kipling's poem was characterizing the lower class (see his use of dialect) rank and file soldiers as the cowards, while the officers were disgraced only insofar as they had failed to establish firm (read harsh) discipline. As a surgeon, Watson would not have been responsible for disciplinary matters, so I think his particular position might have shielded him from the blame and accusations that were likely being thrown around after the fact. But still, it must have been strange and difficult to see public reactions that tried either to valorize and sanitize the disaster - the medals and Reading memorial - or alternatively to salvage national pride by disparaging the soldiers, as in Kipling's poem.

That poem was first published in 1892, by the way. Not a good year for Watson. It was tucked away in a popular little tome called "Barrack Room Ballads," just the kind of thing Watson might have picked up for a moment's cheer outside Mary's sick room. That poor man.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I particularly recommend The Second Anglo-Afghan War 1878-1880 and The British Empire - they seem very even-handed in their treatment of the topic.

I was rather taken aback that the Kipling poem was published in 1892. I realise Kipling was only a teenager in 1880 but I had still imagined the poem was written closer in time to the battle. I suppose I thought that after several years had passed, more would have been known about Maiwand and the public would have been more sympathetic. But then, the poem's point of view might not necessarily reflect what most people thought by 1892.

As you say, it was pretty awful timing if Watson happened to see the poem when it was first published.

Fic prompt

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

So, one of the things I find interesting about A Study in Scarlet is the timeline of Watson's medical education and military service. He says he graduated medical school in 1878, and then went to Netley to train as an army surgeon, which I assume carries us most of the way toward 1879. Then he had to sail to India, travel overland through that country and Pakistan into Afghanistan, and locate his regiment. So I feel like he couldn't have started his active military service much earlier than spring 1879. Maiwand was July 1880. If I've got it right, Watson only served in the army for about one year of his life. In so many adaptations, Watson's identity as a soldier is very important to defining him, but I wonder how he felt about his identity as a soldier. It was such a short period of his life, and of course its impact was huge in large part because of how terribly his health suffered from it. But what does the army mean to Watson? How does he look on that year, and weigh it beside others in his life?

In STUD he absolutely does not romanticize the experience; it was "misfortune and disaster." In some later stories he shares happier tales, but they seem to be about his travels in India more than his military service (he makes Mary laugh with his garbled tiger cub story, and tries to interest Percy Phelps in the anecdotes of his exotic travels to cheer him). He calls himself an "old campaigner" in FINA, but beyond that I can't remember him referring to himself as a soldier. I'd love to hear people's thoughts on that part of his self-perception, or on how Holmes reacted to his short and calamitous military past.

Re: Fic prompt

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting question. I would guess he probably quite enjoyed the early part of his time in the army - the cameraderie, seeing exotic places etc, but service in Afghanistan must have been very different.

Fic rec

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

gardnerhill has a wonderful series about Watson and Henry Wood (the tortured veteran of "The Crooked Man") and the way they help each other heal from the scars of their military service. It offers particular insight into the shame they feel at the ways they seemingly failed the idealized fantasies of martial courage that were popular in their culture. Perhaps the rec more properly belongs with "The Crooked Man," but the first story in particular delves deeply into Watson's experiences in Afghanistan.

Wounded Warrior series (http://archiveofourown.org/series/50164)

Re: Fic rec

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Echoing this rec. And there's nothing to stop you reminding us again when we reach CROO.

Re: Fic rec

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the rec. I've only read the last two stories in this series - I must go back and read the rest.

Re: Fic rec

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the referral! Once I started writing these stories, I was just surprised more people haven't made that connection between those two wounded Subcontinental soldiers.

Re: Fic rec

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

Thank you for writing it! And yes, it makes so much sense to put those two characters into conversation that it starts to look obvious in hindsight. It is a shame there's not more about those two...we seem to have been overlooking some obvious facts! :)

Fic rec: Chiron

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

This is a really intense, amazing story that updates the 1880 Battle of Maiwand to 2009 in the BBC universe. The author is tremendously well-versed in the details of both the 19th century and 21st century wars. They have restaged the last stand of the Berkshires' rearguard with modern technology and medical realities, honoring the dead by using the real names of the historical casualties. Warning for realistic wartime violence, battlefield medicine, and mortality.

Chiron (http://archiveofourown.org/works/169877) (3934 words) by abundantlyqueer (http://archiveofourown.org/users/abundantlyqueer)
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Sherlock (TV) (http://archiveofourown.org/tags/Sherlock%20(TV))
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: John Watson
Summary:

ACD’s Watson was wounded at the Battle of Maiwand in 1880. This is the story of Maiwand as it happened to John in 2009.