Dubbed the soldier’s wife par excellence by The Times, Florentia Sale was one of the most remarkable figures of the First Afghan War. The wife of Brigadier (Later Major-General Sir) Robert Sale, who was to die in the first Sikh War at Mudki in 1845, she had remained in Kabul with her daughter and son-in-law whilst her husband defended Jalalabad. She was forced to join the disastrous retreat from Kabul in January 1842, when she was twice wounded, and taken into captivity with a number of others by Akbar Khan. Her Journal covers the events in Kabul and the retreat as well as her nine month’s captivity and eventual rescue.