Whilst this force was being hastily mobilized, messages had been despatched to Colonel Kelly, commanding the 32nd Pioneers at Gilgit, far away to the west of Chitral, advising him of the critical position of the garrison. Kelly was one of the few officers in the Indian army who had attained the command of a regiment without having participated in any great campaign. He was known to be a good and a keen soldier, but luck had been against him. Now his turn had come. In the depth of winter, the passes covered with snow, often waist deep, mountain torrents unbridged, paths over which even the mules picked their way with difficulty, every ounce of food to be carried for the whole long march of 200 miles, and a formidable rising of all the fanatical Moslem tribes in his front—these were some of the difficulties that Kelly had to face. The story of that march vies with the story of the defence. It was a war against Nature, and the British-led force won.
Sir Robert Low, with the main army pushing up over the Malakand Pass, easily dispersed the gathering of the tribes which endeavoured to bar his advance on Chitral, and so relieved the pressure which otherwise might have militated against Kelly's success. In these engagements the relieving force suffered the following casualties:
| Regiments. | Officers. | Men. | ||||
| British. | Native. | |||||
| K. | W. | K. | W. | K. | W. | |
| 16th (Bedford) | - | - | - | - | 1 | 2 |
| 25th (K.O. Scottish Borderers) | - | 2 | - | - | 2 | 15 |
| 60th (King's Royal Rifles) | - | - | - | - | - | 4 |
| 78th (Seaforth Highlanders) | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 75th (Gordon Highlanders) | - | 3 | - | - | 3 | 9 |
| 11th (Probyn's) Lancers | 1 | - | - | - | 1 | 10 |
| 37th Dogras | - | - | 1 | - | 2 | 16 |
| 54th Sikhs | - | 2 | - | 2 | 3 | 7 |
| 4th Gurkhas | - | - | - | - | - | 3 |
Punjab Frontier.
This honour, which was sanctioned by the Viceroy of India, is borne by the following regiments of the Indian army:
3rd Skinner's Horse.
6th K.E. Cavalry.
9th Hodson's Horse.
11th Probyn's Lancers.
13th Watson's Horse.
18th Tiwana Lancers.
38th Central India Horse.
39th Central India Horse.
Q.O. Corps of Guides.
1st P.W.O. Sappers and Miners.
12th Khelat-i-Ghilzai.
15th Ludhiana Sikhs.
20th Brownlow's Punjabis.
22nd Punjabis.
24th Punjabis.
30th Punjabis.
31st Punjabis.
34th Pioneers.
35th Sikhs.
36th Sikhs.
37th Dogras.
38th Dogras.
39th Gharwal Rifles.
45th Rattray's Sikhs.
53rd Sikhs.
56th Punjabi Rifles.
81st Pioneers.
128th Pioneers.
1st Gurkhas.
2nd Gurkhas.
3rd Gurkhas.
4th Gurkhas.
5th Gurkhas.
9th Gurkhas.
In the year 1897 Greece, in defiance of the warnings of the Great Powers, threw down the gauntlet to Turkey, and at the end of a brief fortnight's campaign was compelled to sue for peace. Through the good offices of the same Powers she was permitted to escape the just punishment she had incurred. The victory of the Turks was greatly exaggerated throughout the Moslem world, and there is no doubt that emissaries of the Sultan were sent through all Moslem countries to expatiate on the greatness of the Ottoman Power and the invincibility of her armies.
About this time the Amir of Afghanistan published a work appealing to the faithful, and a fanatical priest perambulated the mountains along our frontier preaching a war against the infidel. All these causes tended to a great feeling of restlessness—a restlessness not confined to one clan, but showing clearly all down the frontier, from the Black Mountain to the Waziri Hills.
A brief explanation of the condition of affairs on our Punjab frontier is here necessary. That frontier extends up to and impinges on that great mountain-range which interposes between the Indian Empire and the kingdom of Afghanistan. This range is peopled by wild warlike tribes, who own allegiance to no man. Their names are more or less familiar to the British public by reason of the many punitory expeditions we have been compelled to undertake into their hills. Intertribal jealousies have generally been our strongest ally, and never until the year 1897 have we found such a serious combination of tribes against us.
The campaign commemorated by this battle honour—"Punjab Frontier"—commenced by a most treacherous attack on a detachment of troops in the Tochi Valley. It was followed up by a most determined attack on our garrison at Malakand by the Swatis—a tribe who for many years had given us no trouble. Then came an incursion of the Mohmands into the Peshawar Valley, and finally came the attack on the garrisons in the Khyber Pass by the Afridis, that great clan which furnishes some of the very best soldiers to the Indian army. For the operations against the Afridis a separate battle honour—"Tirah"—was granted.