Neville Chamberlain at once became warm friends.
On 25 Aug. the 16th arrived at Kandahar, and on 8 Nov. it set out on its march back to India ; but the outbreak at Kabul led to its immediate recall to Kandahar. During the next nine months the force there under General (Sir) William Nott [q. v.] had repeated encounters with the Afghan levies, and Chamberlain took a prominent part in these actions. He was temporarily appointed to the 1st cavalry of Shah Sujah's force, and soon made himself a name as a skilful swordsman and a daring leader of irregular horse. In the action of the Urghundab (12 Jan. 1842) he was wounded in the knee, but nevertheless took part in the pursuit. In March his men failed him, and he had to fight hard for his life (Forrest, p. 106). On 29 May he was again wounded, being stabbed in the thigh by a Ghazi, who sprang upon his horse. He was given a gratuity of twelve months' pay on account of his wounds.
In August 1842 Nott's force marched from Kandahar on Kabul. Chamberlain went with it, and took part afterwards in the capture and burning of Istaliffe on 28 Sept., which made him 'disgusted with myself, the world, and, above all, with my cruel profession' (Forrest, p. 149). The combined forces of Nott and Pollock left Kabul on 12 Oct. They were harassed by the Afghans on their homeward march as far as Peshawar, and Chamberlain, who was with the rear-guard, was twice wounded by a bullet near the spine on 16 Oct. and a bullet in the leg on 6 Nov. He had been nearly four years in Afghanistan and had been wounded six times. He had earned the 1839 medal for Ghazni and the 1842 medal for Kandahar, Ghazni, and Kabul. General Nott spoke so highly of him that on 2 Jan. 1843 he was appointed to the governor-general's bodyguard. This did not remove him from his regiment (the 16th), in which he had become lieutenant on 16 July 1842.
Though still suffering from his last wound, he took part in the Gwalior campaign and in the battle of Maharajpore on 29 Dec. 1843, for which a bronze star was awarded. On 20 Feb. 1845 he left Calcutta for England, very reluctantly, for the first Sikh war was imminent, but as his only chance of cure. He returned to India at the end of 1846, having partially recovered the use of his leg. He was military secretary to the governor of Bombay till May 1848, and was then employed for a few months under the resident at Indore ; but on the outbreak of the second Sikh war he applied for active service, and was appointed brigade-major of the 4th cavalry brigade (irregulars).
In the operations preceding the passage of the Chenab Lord Gough [q. v.] called for a volunteer to swim the river and reconnoitre the right bank. Death was certain, if the Sikhs were still there ; but Chamberlain swam across with a few men of the 9th lancers, found that the Sikhs had gone, and was greated by Gough on his return as 'the bravest of the bravo.' At Chillian-walla his brigade was left to protect the baggage, but at Gujarat it was actively engaged. Chamberlain distinguished himself in the pursuit, and Gough promised him the command of the first regiment of irregular cavalry that might be in his gift. He received the Punjab medal with two clasps, and when he became captain in his regiment on 1 Nov. 1849, he was given a brevet-majority.
In May 1849 he was appointed assistant adjutant-general of the Sirhind division, but he soon tired of office routine. He asked for civil employment, and in December he was made assistant commissioner in the Rawul Pindi district, whence he was transferred to Hazara in June 1850. He was entrusted with the organisation of the military police for the Punjab, and at the beginning of 1852 he was appointed military secretary to the board of government at Lahore, which supervised the police. Within three months he wished to throw up this post in order to take part in the expedition to Burmah, but Lord Dalhousie objected that such volunteering would be to the detriment of the government he was serving (Forrest, p. 255).
In the autumn his health broke down, from malarial fever caught in Hazara. He went to South Africa on sick leave and spent a year and a half hunting lions north and south of the Vaal. He returned to India at the end of 1854 to take up the command of the Punjab irregular force, which Lord Dalhousie had reserved for him. This force, modelled upon the Guide corps raised in 1846 by (Sir) Harry Burnett Lumsden [q. v. Suppl. I], numbered 11,000 men and had to guard 700 miles of frontier against turbulent tribes. Chamberlain was only a captain in his regiment, but he was made brevet lieutenant-colonel (28 Nov. 1854) and was given the local rank of brigadier. In April 1855 he led an expedition into Meeranzie, and in August against the Orakzais, for which he received the thanks of the governor-general. In the
