William Brydon William Brydon CB ( 10 October 1811 – 20 March 1873 ) was an assistant surgeon in the British East India Company Army during the First Anglo - Afghan War , famous for reportedly being the only member of an army of 4 , 500 men to reach safety in Jalalabad at the end of the long retreat from Kabul . Early life . Dr Brydon was born in London of Scottish descent . He studied medicine at University College London and at the University of Edinburgh . Defeat . The British Army began its retreat from Kabul in January 1842 , following the killing of the two British representatives there . The nearest British garrison was in Jalalabad , away , and the army would need to go through mountain passes with the January snow hindering them . Under the command of Major - General William George Keith Elphinstone , 4 , 500 military personnel and 12 , 000 civilian camp follower s including wives and children set out for Jalalabad on 6 January 1842 , on the understanding that they had been offered safe passage . Afghan tribesmen intercepted them and proceeded to massacre them during the next seven days . The final stand took place at Gandamak on the morning of 13 January 1842 in the snow . Twenty officers and forty - five British soldiers , mostly of the 44th Foot , found themselves surrounded on a hillock . The Afghans attempted to persuade the soldiers that they intended them no harm . Then the sniping began , followed by a series of rushes . Captain Souter wrapped the regimental colours around his body and was dragged into captivity with two or three soldiers . The remainder were shot or cut down . Only six mounted officers escaped , of whom five were killed along the road . On the afternoon of 13 January 1842 the British troops in Jalalabad , watching for their comrades of the Kabul garrison , saw a single figure ride up to the town walls . It was Dr Brydon sr . Part of his skull had been sheared off by an Afghan sword and he survived only because he had stuffed a copy of " Blackwood ' s Magazine " into his hat to fight the intense cold weather . The magazine took most of the blow , saving the doctor ' s life . William Brydon became widely , if inaccurately , famous for being the only survivor of the entire army . In fact , he was not the only European to survive the retreat ; about 115 British officers , soldiers , wives and children were captured or taken as hostages and survived to be subsequently released . These included Sir Robert Sale ' s wife , Lady Florentia Sale , though not Elphinstone who died in captivity . Nor was Brydon the only European to survive the trek from Kabul to Jalalabad without spending time in captivity ; by Brydon ' s own account a " Greek merchant , " Mr Baness , also made it to Jalalabad , arriving two days after Brydon but surviving for only one day . In addition a small number of Indian sepoys reached Jalabad on foot over the subsequent weeks . One sepoy , havildar Sita Ram , escaped from Afghanistan after 21 months of slavery and rejoined his former regiment at Delhi Around 2 , 000 sepoys and camp followers were eventually found in Kabul and brought back to India by General Pottinger ' s army following their occupation of Kabul . The episode was made the subject of a famous painting by the Victorian artist Lady Butler , who portrayed an exhausted Dr Brydon approaching the gates of the Jalalabad fort perched on his dying horse ( which dropped dead upon arrival in the city ) . The painting is titled " Remnants of an Army " . After the defeat . Dr Brydon fought in the Second Anglo - Burmese War of 1852 , when Rangoon was taken . In 1857 , Dr Brydon was a regimental doctor at Lucknow and , along with his wife and children , survived his second siege , that of the Lucknow residency ( June – November 1857 ) , in which he was badly wounded in the thigh . He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath ( CB ) in November 1858 . His wife , Colina Maxwell Brydon , published a memoir of the siege . William Brydon died at his home Westfield near Nigg in Ross - shire on 20 March 1873 , and is buried in Rosemarkie churchyard alongside his brother - in - law Donald MacIntyre VC