Khartoum Gallery

Battle of Abu Klea, 17 January 1885

Battle of Abu Klea, 17 January 1885. Oil on canvas signed and dated lower left: W B Wollen 1896, by William Barns Wollen (1857-1936), 1896. In a race against time to relieve General Gordon, besieged at Khartoum, a relief column under General Sir Garnet Wolseley set out from Cairo in October 1884. Realising that his infantry, travelling in boats up the Nile, might not reach Khartoum in time to save Gordon, Wolseley detached a Desert Column to travel overland by a faster but more dangerous route. On 17 Jan 1885 this Column, commanded by General Herbert Stewart, was attacked by the Mahdists at Abu Klea. The resulting battle was later described by Winston Churchill as the most savage and bloody action ever fought in the Soudan by British troops'. The British square broke and was closed only after desperate hand-to-hand fighting. The British suffered 168 casualties, the Mahdists about 1100. The Column finally reached Khartoum on 28 January, two days after the town had fallen. Date: 1885

© The National Army Museum / Mary Evans Picture Library

London - General Gordons Statue

London - General Gordon's Statue in St. Martin's Place, London. A statue of Gordon on a camel by Edward Onslow Ford was erected in Chatham funded by monies raised by soldiers and officers of the Royal Engineers. A replica of this statue was briefly on display close by Trafalgar Square (as shown here) prior to being shipped out to Khartoum (surviving the sinking of two of its transporting vessels, the Cedarden which sunk in the Thames and the SS Lesbian which was submerged in the Nile!). See 10295283 and 10493839 for views of the statue in situ in Khartoum. Following Sudanese independence in the late 1950s, the statue returned to the UK, and was placed on display at Gordon's School at West End near Woking, Surrey where it remains to this day. Quite a journey! Date: circa 1901

© Mary Evans / Grenville Collins Postcard Collection

The Conquest of the Soudan, 1896-98:the Battle of Omdurman, September 2, 1898, (1901)

The Conquest of the Soudan, 1896-98: The Charge of the 21st Lancers at the Battle of Omdurman, September 2, 1898, (1901). British soldier Major-General Kitchener regained the Sudan for Egypt by his victory at Omdurman near Khartoum. The 21st Lancers, a light cavalry regiment, attacked what they thought were only a few hundred dervishes (Mahdist fighters), but there were 2000 infantry hidden behind them in a dry watercourse. 70 men were killed or wounded, with the loss of 119 horses, the highest casualty figures of any British regiment at the battle. Three Victoria Crosses were awarded to members of the 21st who had helped rescue wounded comrades. From "The Illustrated London News Record of the Glorious Reign of Queen Victoria 1837-1901: The Life and Accession of King Edward VII. and the Life of Queen Alexandra". [London, 1901]

© The Print Collector/Heritage Images