THE QUEEN’S SUDAN MEDAL 1896 - 1898 AND
THE KHEDIVE’S SUDAN MEDAL 1896 - 1908
Special Army Order, War Office, Cairo, 12th February 1897. The following is published for the information of the troops:-
His Highness the Khedive has been most graciously pleased to approve of a Medal being struck, to commemorate the Military operations in connection with the Dongola Province. The Medal will be designated “The Sudan Medal” and will be worn to the right of the Khedival Bronze Star. The Medal will be suspended from a distinctive yellow ribbon with a watered blue stripe down the
centre.The Medal will be granted to troops serving at, and to the south of, Sarras, between the 30th March and the 23rd September 1896, and to the troops under Brigadier-General C. C. Egerton serving at Suakin between those inclusive dates.
Clasps to be inscribed respectively…
Firket (7 June 1896) and Hafir (19-26 September 1896)
Kitchener’s army crossed the Sudan frontier on 18 March 1896 and by 2 June the army headquarters was established at Akasha, south of Wadi Halfa. Still further to the south the enemy were occupying the town of Firket. On 5 June orders were issued by the Sirdar for two columns to advance on the town. The “River” column to be commanded by himself, and the “Desert” column by Kaimakam Burn Murdoch Bey. The battle was joined on 7 June and the Dervishes under the Emir Osman Azraq decisively beaten.
After the battle of Firket the advance south slowly resumed, and on 19 September Kerma was reached, only to find that it had been evacuated the previous day. The Dervishes had crossed the Nile to the town of Hafir on the west bank where they were bolstered by reinforcements from Omdurman. The town now contained all of the Khalifa's forces in Dongola province. The river gunboats bombarded the town making it untenable, so it was evacuated. The Sirdar crossed the river and scattered the enemy forces.
On the 26th the town of Merowe was occupied, and by 15 October all of Dongola was in the Sirdars' hands thereby bringing the first phase of the campaign to a close. The expeditionary force was then disbanded with the troops returning to their bases, and the Sirdar returned to Cairo having done exactly what he was supposed to, on time, and within budget. On the minus side, the army had lost 169 men killed and wounded in combat, and nearly a 1000 in a cholera epidemic.
The port of Suakin on the Red Sea, was never abandoned, and was held by an Egyptian Army garrison. However, with Hadendowa Emir Osman Digna active in the area it was decided prudent to re-inforce the town. The most convenient place to find spare troops was from India, so a contingent of 4,000 Indian Army troops, comprising 1st Bombay Lancers, 26th Bengal Infantry, 35th Sikhs, 5th Bombay Mountain Battery, some engineers and a field hospital were drafted in to re-inforce the Egyptian garrison, and were commanded by Brigadier Egerton. The R.N. vessels H.M.S. Scout and H.M.S. Melita, were also stationed there.
Sudan 1897 (15 July - 6 November 1897)
With worries about the cost of keeping an occupying Force in Dongola, what the French and Belgians were up to in the south, and concerns about the Khalifa still having a great deal of military power, it soon became accepted government opinion that the occupation of Dongola was only the first phase on the road to reconquering the whole of the Sudan. The belief that France would occupy the upper Nile region via West Africa was the final straw, and Kitchener was instructed to bring all of the Sudan under Anglo-Egyptian rule.
In January 1897 the Sirdar concentrated on building a railway south from Wadi Halfa to Abu Hamed, which was still held by the Dervishes, some 230 miles through the desert, cutting across the largest loop in the Nile. A second line was to follow the Nile the 200 miles south to Kerma. The young R.E. officers given the task of building the railway used thousands of conscripts, and were commanded by the indefatigable Canadian railroad engineer Percy Girouard. They were known as “Kitchener's Band of Boys” and were all hand-picked for their potential, and he was to reward their loyalty many times, some of them eventually making senior rank.
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