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Called "the most dangerous place in the world" how did British officer Warburton manage to keep open the ancient gateway between Pakistan and Afghanistan known as the Khyber Pass, later to be the scene of a massacre of a 16,000-strong Anglo-Indian expeditionary force retreating from Kabul?
Appointed political officer of the Khyber Pass in 1879, it was Sir Robert Warburton's task to ensure the Khyber Pass remained passable. As detailed in his 1900 posthumously published book "Eighteen Years in the Khyber," to a unique extent he won the confidence and the affection of the tribesmen, obtained an ascendency in their councils and traversed alone in fearless security a territory which a few years before no European could enter.
In introducing the book of the recently deceased author, a note to the reader states:
"Marvelous mental activity and a firm, powerful will had helped to sustain the well-knit but slender frame of ROBERT WARBURTON through nearly thirty-seven years of Indian service, the latter half of which was passed in the almost daily worry, care, and anxiety inseparable from the guardianship of the important post which had been intrusted to his charge-that of the famous and once-dreaded Khyber Pass. How well he fulfilled that trust is on official record, and will have its lasting place in the history of British rule in India. These pages give in his own simple language the modest story during years of lonely exile, of duty done under many difficulties, and often under many depressing influences."
Appointed political officer of the Khyber Pass in 1879, it was Sir Robert Warburton's task to ensure the Khyber Pass remained passable. As detailed in his 1900 posthumously published book "Eighteen Years in the Khyber," to a unique extent he won the confidence and the affection of the tribesmen, obtained an ascendency in their councils and traversed alone in fearless security a territory which a few years before no European could enter.
In introducing the book of the recently deceased author, a note to the reader states:
"Marvelous mental activity and a firm, powerful will had helped to sustain the well-knit but slender frame of ROBERT WARBURTON through nearly thirty-seven years of Indian service, the latter half of which was passed in the almost daily worry, care, and anxiety inseparable from the guardianship of the important post which had been intrusted to his charge-that of the famous and once-dreaded Khyber Pass. How well he fulfilled that trust is on official record, and will have its lasting place in the history of British rule in India. These pages give in his own simple language the modest story during years of lonely exile, of duty done under many difficulties, and often under many depressing influences."