Randolph Bezzant Holmes and the World He Recorded
Randolph Bezzant Holmes was born in Peshawar, then part of British India, on 14 January 1888. His father, William Dacia Holmes, had established himself there as a photographer and had accompanied the British Indian Army during the Zhob expedition. The Holmes family lived in the British cantonment at 42 The Mall, a home that would later become closely tied to Randolph’s life, work, and memory.
In time, Randolph followed his father into photography and took over the family business. His work ranged from small commercial prints to large albumen photographs, including landscapes, portraits, people, and scenes from the regions around Peshawar, Kashmir, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Waziristan, Srinagar, Gulmarg, and Murree.
His sister, Gwendolyn, added another dimension to the family’s visual work by colouring his black-and-white photographs, producing oilbrom images that transformed documentary photographs into striking artistic pieces.
Official Photographer During the Third Anglo-Afghan War
In 1919, during the Third Anglo-Afghan War, Holmes was appointed official photographer to the British Indian forces. Much of the conflict took place in Waziristan and the frontier districts, making these regions central to the visual record he left behind.
“The third Afghan war began on a sultry hot day the 11th May 1919 […] Divisions moved North rapidly, a double road was cut through the Khyber, and Peshawar became headquarters.”
“I specially recall the battle of Khargali Ridge when the Afghan elephant battery was shot up near Bagh and the terrible time British troops had sealing the heights.”
Holmes also remembered the armistice that followed, recording the clash of ceremony, delay, and colonial impatience in vivid detail.
“Then came the September Armistice when the funniest looking Generals, all dressed in helmets with waving plumes, came from the Afghan lines.”
Peshawar Through Holmes’ Eyes
Holmes was deeply attached to Peshawar. His descriptions of the city capture markets, traders, workshops, crafts, fruit stalls, copperware, and the layered life of a city shaped by many communities.
“The city is full of great markets and shops mostly of Hindu and Sikh traders […] goldsmiths, silversmiths, money changers sitting in the open through fare and where even Alexander’s coins may be bought.”
His home at 42 The Mall was equally vivid in his memory, especially the garden.
“In April all the trees become dense and green and the mulberry tree, like a great umbrella, makes gracious shade for cattle, sheep and villager to hide from the midday sun.”
“I loved my Peshawar nowhere else does such a paen of glory ascend at dawn.”
Unrest, Partition, and the End of a World
Holmes lived through intense political change. In 1930, protests linked to the Khudai Khidmatgar movement and the massacre at Qissa Khwani Bazaar marked a violent period in Peshawar’s history. Holmes recorded what he heard and saw with the language and assumptions of his time, often writing from within the colonial world he inhabited.
“Rumours became wilder on the 24th and everyone was fearful. The Garhwal Regiment had been disarmed and the KOYLI later brought in their rifles.”
By 1947, tensions between Sikh, Hindu, and Muslim communities had intensified. Holmes described a city changing rapidly around him, as violence and fear reshaped daily life.
“From this period all the Sikhs and Hindus virtually became prisoners in their own houses. Two or three were stabbed each day as they ventured out in search of food.”
“Each morning the train had been filled to capacity with fleeing Sikhs and Hindus.”
Holmes had hoped to remain in Peshawar after British rule ended. He had been born there, lived there for nearly sixty years, and regarded the city as home. But the world that had sustained his life and business was disappearing.
“Don’t give district Headquarters the job of digging you out.”
The warning stayed with him. Though he had wanted to live among his Pathan friends, he later recognised how exposed he would be once British authority withdrew.
“I forgot the Union Jack would not be there!”
Leaving 42 The Mall
By January 1948, Holmes had turned sixty. Peshawar was no longer the city he had known. Many Hindu and Sikh residents had fled, British military presence had faded, and Holmes found himself increasingly out of place in the city of his birth.
He sold his home at 42 The Mall for Rs 20,000 to Colonel Khushwaqt-Ul-Mulk of the Chitrali Mehtar’s family. The bungalow was later demolished and replaced by four houses.
The loss of 42 The Mall stands as more than a personal ending. It marks the passing of a household, a photographic business, and a world of layered identities that Partition remade.
The Importance of the Archive
Holmes’ photographs remain an important record of people, places, and cultures across Peshawar, Kashmir, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Waziristan, and surrounding regions. His images preserve portraits, landscapes, architecture, and everyday scenes that might otherwise have vanished from view.
The R. B. Holmes Archive is part of a wider effort to preserve and present this material with care. Through photographs, captions, family records, and historical notes, Holmes Frontier is gradually making this collection accessible as family history, visual history, and a record of a world that changed dramatically in the twentieth century.