Who is Joshua White from Time's Eye and what is their importance?

A journalist from the Boston Globe, Josh is stationed in the North West Frontier. At twenty three years of age, Josh feels like a veteran compared to Ruddy. He has unruly black hair. A small featured man, Josh shares a room with a young Rudyard Kipling. He thinks of himself as pug nosed, and his eyes are often bleary from the night before, despite the fact that he has learned to keep himself to beer.