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Randolph Bezzant Holmes India Films

Military occasions around India and Pakistan, featuring the Khyber Pass, Srinagar, Rawalpindi and Peshawar

Amateur film 1919 29 mins Silent

Overview

This compilation of amateur films captures some extraordinary images - many of them military - around India's North West Frontier, including the Khyber Pass, Srinagar, Rawalpindi and Peshawar. Filmmaker Randolph Bezzant Holmes new the region well, and was embedded around this time with the British colonial army, given him unique access. Extracts show the Duke of Connaught on parade and the arrival of the Afghan delegation at the Torkham border (between Afghanistan and what is now Pakistan) for a peace settlement.

Randolph Bezzant Holmes (1888-1973) was a commercial photographer who took over his father's business in Peshawar, which he ran until 1947. In 1919 Holmes accompanied the British colonial army during the Third Anglo-Afghan War.

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