George Broadfoot

Courtesy of Orkney Library and Archive

George Broadfoot, was born in Kirkwall in 1807, the eldest son of Rev Broadfoot, first minister of the Secession Church in Kirkwall. His mother was a daughter of James Sutherland of Burray. He and one of his brothers feature as characters in two of George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman novels; Flashman and Flashman and the Mountain of Light. In the historical notes in the latter book, MacDonald Fraser writes, "George Broadfoot, a large, red-haired, heavily-bespectacled and pugnacious Orcadian, was one of the early paladins of the North-west Frontier. He had distinguished himself in the Afghan War as a ferocious fighter, engineer and military organizer, and it was in large part due to him that Jellalabad was successfully defended after the disastrous Kabul retreat. He was awarded a C.B. and a special mention in dispatches, and went on to serve in Burma before being appointed North-west Agent in 1845."

The same book also attributes to him the quote, "Have you ever noticed how soft a man's head is?", said to have been made after a skirmish in Afghanistan from which he emerged perspiring heavily and with a blood-stained saber, having killed three men and been wounded himself.

Broadfoot raised a regiment of sappers and Archibald Forbes, in his book "Afghan Wars 1839-42 and 1878-80", writes "How able, resolute, and high-souled a man was George Broadfoot, the course of this narrative will later disclose. He was one of three gallant brothers, all of whom died sword in hand. The corps of sappers which he commanded was a remarkable body--a strange medley of Hindustanees, Goorkhas, and Afghan tribesmen of divers regions. Many were desperate and intractable characters, but Broadfoot, with mingled strength and kindness, moulded his heterogeneous recruits into skilful, obedient and disciplined soldiers. The regiment was called Broadfoot's Sappers and was later abosorbed into the Bengal Sappers.

On his death at Ferozeshuhur in 1845, India's Governor-General, Lord Hardinge, wrote, "It is now with great pain that I have to record the irreparable loss I have sustained, and more especially the East India Company's service, in the death of Major Broadfoot of the Madras army, my political agent. He was thrown from his horse by a shot, and I failed in prevailing upon him to leave the field. He remounted, and shortly afterwards received a mortal wound. He was brave as he was able in every branch of the political and military service."

His death was noted in both houses of Parliament as a public calamity. Sir Robert Peel said in the House of Commons; "He obtained the applause of every civil and military authority in the country, and his prudence and skill as a civilian were only equalled by his ardour and bravery in the field."

His nephew Major William Broadfoot wrote a book, "The Career of Major George Broadfoot in Afghanistan and the Punjab".