Sale, SIR ROBERT HENRY

Sale, SIR ROBERT HENRY, British soldier, was born in 1782, the son of an officer in the army of the East India Company, and himself in 1795 joined the colours as ensign. He saw a great deal of fighting; he was present at the storming of Seringapatam (1799) and of Travancore (1809), assisted at the capture of Mauritius (1810), and fought throughout the Burmese war of 1824-25. In this war he took part in the capture of Rangoon and in the storming of Bassein, and distinguished himself in the assault on the lines of Prome, where he was wounded. When war was declared against Afghanistan in 1838 'Fighting Bob,' as Sale was called, was given the command of the first brigade in the Bengal division of the invading army. He greatly distinguished himself at the assault and capture of Ghazni, being again wounded. In the autumn of 1840 he was despatched to punish certain hostile chiefs in Kohistan and to keep a close watch upon the restless movements of the usurper Dost Mohammed, who was looking for an opportunity to strike a blow at Kabul. When the evacuation of Afghanistan was decided upon Sale's was the first brigade to set off back to India; but it had to fight its way through all the passes—the Coord Kabul, Tezen, Jagdalak—that lie between Kabul and Jellalabad. In this last fortress he was closely invested from 12th November 1841 to 7th April 1842; but in numerous sorties, and even in a general engagement (Tezen), he defeated the forces of Akhbar Khan (son of Dost Mohammed). He was at length relieved by General Pollock, who commanded the army sent to punish the Afghans for their treacherous slaughter of General Elphinstone's force in the defiles, and with him took part in the recapture of Kabul and the events that followed it. Sale was killed, his thigh being shattered by grape-shot, at the battle of Mudki, fighting against the Sikhs, on 18th December 1845. See Gleig, Sale's Brigade in Afghanistan (1846). His wife, Lady Sale, who was captured by the Afghans during Elphinstone's retreat, and kept prisoner by them until the arrival of Pollock's army, wrote a Journal of the Disasters in Afghanistan (1843).