Mr Jenkyns, Major Cavagnari CIS, Amir Yakub Khan

Mr Jenkyns, Major Cavagnari CIS, Amir Yakub Khan...', 1879. A photograph by John Burke [1845-1900] of the Afghan Amir Yaqub Khan [ d 1914] and the British diplomat Major Sir Pierre Louis Napoleon Cavagnari [1841-1879] in conference at Gandamak, Afghanistan, taken on July 12 1879 and published in the album 'The Afghan War, Attogk to Jellalabad, Gandamak and Surkhab'. The Amir, seated in the centre in a splendid white European-style uniform, is photographed during a conference with Major Cavagnari. Cavagnari was about to take up the post of British envoy in Kabul as part of the peace the British had forced on the Afghans after a year of fighting. However, widespread resentment at the British presence led to an attack on the British residency in Kabul on 3 September 1879. Despite fighting bravely Cavagnari and his small escort were killed. This in turn led the British to resume the war to avenge the deaths of their soldiers. The full title of the photograph is 'Mr Jenkyns, Major Cavagnari CIS, Amir Yakub Khan, Habeebula Mustafii, General Daod Shah in Conference'. A pioneer of photography in India, John Burke began working in Peshawar, as an assistant to the commercial photographer William Baker. Baker took up photography on retiring from the British Army in 1861 and Burke himself had worked as an apothecary in the Royal Artillery. When Baker stopped working in 1873 Burke carried on, recording the evolution of the Indian Raj in the late nineteenth century. Burke accompanied the British army on its advance into Afghanistan during the Second Afghan War of 1878-1879. ©SSPL/NMeM/Kodak Collection