The Kabul to Kandahar Star, also known as the Roberts Star or Kandahar Bronze Star was awarded to those

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

and

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

troops who participated in the 320 mile march from

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

Kandahar Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a List of cities in Afghanistan, city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

between 9–31 August 1880, under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Roberts. In addition, it was awarded to the troops stationed en route at Kelat-i-Ghilzie, who accompanied General Roberts on the final ninety miles to Kandahar. An episode of the

Second Afghan War The Second Anglo-Afghan War (Dari: جنگ دوم افغان و انگلیس, ps, د افغان-انګرېز دويمه جګړه) was a military conflict fought between the British Raj and the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1878 to 1880, when the l ...

, the march took place to relieve Kandahar, where a British force was being besieged by Afghan forces. On reaching Kandahar, Roberts decisively beat the Afghans on 1 September 1880 at the

Battle of Kandahar Battle of Kandahar may refer to: * Battle of Kandahar (1880), the last major conflict of the Second Anglo-Afghan War * Battle of Kandahar (2001), the fall of the city in 2001, signaling the end of organized Taliban control of Afghanistan * Battl ...

and lifted the siege. The war was concluded soon after. Just over 11,000 were awarded, all recipients also receiving the Afghanistan Medal, usually with the 'Kandahar' bar. The march received much publicity in the United Kingdom, and its success was a cause of much celebration. This explains why a special medal was authorised, even though those involved had already qualified for the Afghanistan Medal. General Roberts was surprised at the strength of the public reaction, which he attributed to:

"the glamour of romance thrown around an army of 10,000 men lost to view, as it were, for nearly a month, about the fate of which uninformed speculation was rife and pessimistic rumours were spread, until the tension became extreme, and the corresponding relief proportionably great when that army reappeared to dispose at once of
Ayub Khan Ayub Khan is a compound masculine name; Ayub is the Arabic version of the name of the Biblical figure Job, while Khan or Khaan is taken from the title used first by the Mongol rulers and then, in particular, their Islamic and Persian-influenced s ...
, he Afghan commanderand his hitherto victorious troops."

Description

The medal is a bronze five-pointed star 62mm high and 48mm wide, suspended by the Imperial Crown. It was made from guns captured at the

.
Obverse: in the middle is the royal monogram VRI, surrounded by the text "Kabul to Kandahar 1880".
Reverse: plain with a hollow centre, with the name of the recipient around the edge.
Ribbon: watered silk pattern with a rainbow of red, white, yellow, white and blue, a design used by several campaign medals of the former

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

and representing an eastern sky at sunrise. The medal was manufactured by Henry Jenkins and Sons of Birmingham, who also made the Egyptian

Khedive's Star The Khedive's Star was a campaign medal established by Khedive Tewfik Pasha to reward those who had participated in the military campaigns in Egypt and the Sudan between 1882 and 1891. This included British forces who served during the 1882 Anglo- ...

of 1882.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kabul To Kandahar Star British campaign medals