拍品專文
Private William McKee was among the 46 members of his Regiment who drowned in the Kabul River on 31.3.1879, an incident that prompted Kipling to put pen to paper:
'Ford, ford, ford o'Kabul River, Ford o'Kabul River in the dark! Gawd 'elp 'em if they blunder, for their boots'll pull 'em under, By the ford o'Kabul River in the dark' (Ford o'Kabul River refers).
'In the meantime the camp was startled by the return of a large number of riderless horses, their wet saddles and kits making it apparent that some disaster has occurred. A search party was at once despatched under Captain J.R. Slade, R.H.A., but the darkness was so great that only one body was recovered. At daybreak the search continued down stream, and nineteen bodies were soon discovered. That of Sub-Lieutenant Harford was found by some villagers about a mile below the scene of the disaster, and some were carried as far as Dakka, a distance by river of sixty miles' (Memoirs of the Tenth Hussars refers).
'Ford, ford, ford o'Kabul River, Ford o'Kabul River in the dark! Gawd 'elp 'em if they blunder, for their boots'll pull 'em under, By the ford o'Kabul River in the dark' (Ford o'Kabul River refers).
'In the meantime the camp was startled by the return of a large number of riderless horses, their wet saddles and kits making it apparent that some disaster has occurred. A search party was at once despatched under Captain J.R. Slade, R.H.A., but the darkness was so great that only one body was recovered. At daybreak the search continued down stream, and nineteen bodies were soon discovered. That of Sub-Lieutenant Harford was found by some villagers about a mile below the scene of the disaster, and some were carried as far as Dakka, a distance by river of sixty miles' (Memoirs of the Tenth Hussars refers).