Annual Fatal Battle of Maiwand Commemoration
L to R: Nancy Laughrey, Dean Clark, Jim Perry, grillmaster Tom Duncombe, Gracie Duncombe and Laura Duncombe share stories at the 2024 Fatal Battle of Maiwand event.
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L to R: Stephanie Colburn, Laura Bottoms, Catherine Gatchell, Sue Sinor, Brad Sinor, Rosalie Mollica, Sherry Zyskowski, Bill Janssens and Brooks Williamson partake in the potluck dinner.
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Rosalie Mollica, the Perceivers' president from 2019 to 2024, and Brian Wilson, assuming the group's reins in 2024, are properly pithed at the 2019 Fatal Battle of Maiwand commemoration at the now-defunct Bread and Butter restaurant.
The Afghanistan Perceivers commemorate the Fatal Battle of Maiwand each year because that is where and when Dr. John H. Watson is injured by a Jezail bullet on 27 July 1880. That injury ultimately leads a broke and broken Watson to return to London, where he meets Sherlock Holmes a little more than five months later.
Fifteen Perceivers attended the 2024 commemoration, a potluck affair on 25 July at the home of treasurer Laura Duncombe, her husband, Tom, and their Sherlockians-in-training, Teddy, Luke and Gracie.
Toasts abounded, with: Brooks Williamson lauding Watson's all-around good character; libations committee chair Dean Clark acknowledging Sherlock Holmes's genius in letting Watson chronicle his cases; Laura Duncombe noting the Jezail bullet's fate in not being fatal by striking Watson in the shoulder, leg and/or extremity; Jim Perry conceding the Afghan sniper's inability to do his job; canonical names committee chair Brandi Blankenship praising the orderly Murray and his pack-horse for rescuing the debilitated Watson; Catherine Gatchell thanking Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for getting Watson's adventures with Holmes into the public eye; and incoming president Brian Wilson hailing Bobbie the Fice, the canine hero of the Fatal Battle of Maiwand, and young Stamford, who introduces Watson to Holmes.
Fifteen Perceivers attended the 2024 commemoration, a potluck affair on 25 July at the home of treasurer Laura Duncombe, her husband, Tom, and their Sherlockians-in-training, Teddy, Luke and Gracie.
Toasts abounded, with: Brooks Williamson lauding Watson's all-around good character; libations committee chair Dean Clark acknowledging Sherlock Holmes's genius in letting Watson chronicle his cases; Laura Duncombe noting the Jezail bullet's fate in not being fatal by striking Watson in the shoulder, leg and/or extremity; Jim Perry conceding the Afghan sniper's inability to do his job; canonical names committee chair Brandi Blankenship praising the orderly Murray and his pack-horse for rescuing the debilitated Watson; Catherine Gatchell thanking Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for getting Watson's adventures with Holmes into the public eye; and incoming president Brian Wilson hailing Bobbie the Fice, the canine hero of the Fatal Battle of Maiwand, and young Stamford, who introduces Watson to Holmes.