Cite
MLA
“Tirah Campaign.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/tirah-campaign-1897/. Accessed .
APA
Hindu History. (2026). Tirah Campaign. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/tirah-campaign-1897/
Lockhart’s force marched through Tirah and burned villages; after a hard winter the tribes paid fines and gave up rifles, and the Khyber posts were restored.
01Dargai
Lockhart gathered two divisions at Kohat and moved up past the Samana ridge in October 1897. The way into Tirah ran under the heights of Dargai. They were taken on 18 October, given up, and had to be stormed again on 20 October under heavy fire. The Gurkhas, the Dorsets and the Gordon Highlanders went up in turn; the Gordons’ piper, George Findlater, kept playing though shot through both legs. The force then crossed the Sampagha and Arhanga passes into the Maidan valley.
02A hard winter in the hills
In Tirah the columns burned villages and stores, while the Afridis fought them from the ridges, cut off foraging parties and harried every withdrawal. The march out down the Bara valley in December, in snow and rain, was as costly as the advance. The campaign ended without a set-piece victory. Through the spring of 1898 the clans came in one by one, paid the fines and handed over the rifles demanded of them, and the Khyber was reopened.
Tirah showed how hard the frontier hills were to hold, and led Curzon to pull regular troops back and raise tribal militias instead.
