| This unidentified captain of the Royal Engineers was in all likelihood attached to the Indo-European Telegraph Department office that was located in Teheran. The office was staffed by an officer and several non-commissioned officers of the Royal Engineers. The Indo-European Telegraph Department was created as a result of the India Mutiny (1857), in which the British empire almost lost "The Jewel in the Crown" before any official in London learned there was a problem. Simultaneously, within India, telegraphic communications proved crucial for the counterattack of British forces. The British decided to lay telegraph lines through Persia (Iran) after early attempts to lay submarine cables under the Red Sea and Indian Ocean failed. This officer wears the miniature version of the 1881 Afghanistan Campaign Medal. Cabinet Photograph Antoin V. Sevruguin - Photographer Teheran, Persia c. 1890 |
