PRE WW1 BRITISH ARMY AFGHANISTAN MEDAL 1878 CLASP PEIWAR KOTAL PTE FOX 8th REGT

Offered is an original Afghanistan Medal (1878-1880), with clasp PEIWAR KOTAL, period engraved 701. PTE W.COX. 2/8TH REGT. Comes with copies of the medal & photograph of members of the 8th King’s Regiment in Afghanistan after the Battle of Peiwar Kotal. Private William Cox served in the Second Anglo-Afghan War with the 2nd Battalion. The Battle of Peiwar Kotal was fought on 28–29 November 1878 between British forces under Sir Frederick Roberts and Afghan forces under Karim Khan, during the opening stages of the Second Anglo-Afghan War. The British were victorious and seized the strategic Peiwar Kotal Pass leading into Afghanistan. The first campaign began in November 1878 when a British force of about 50,000 fighting men, mostly Indians, was distributed into three military columns which penetrated Afghanistan at three different points. The British victories at the Battle of Ali Masjid and the Battle of Peiwar Kotal meant that the approach to Kabul was left virtually undefended by Afghan troops. An alarmed Sher Ali attempted to appeal in person to the Russian Tsar for assistance, but their insistence was that he should seek terms of surrender from the British. A nice example as per photographs.