John Colborne (1830-1890) was a British Colonel formerly in the 11th Foot, he joined the Egyptian army and was on the staff of al-fariq W. Hicks Pasha 1883 and fought in the campaign on the White Nile agianst the Mahdists which culminated in the Egyptian victory at Jabalain; invalided from the front he was employed on rear-guard duties by which he escaped death at the massacre of Shaikan in which Hicks and his army were destroyed; during the campaign he was war correspondent for the Daily News of London; he wrote With Hicks Pasha in the Soudan.
Colborne was one of the three survivors of the disastrous expedition of European officers which the ill-fated Hicks Pasha led into the Soudan in 1883. He survived by the accident of being on the sick list, and forced to take leave of absence. The Hicks expedition is still wrapped in mystery. Those who saw it depart from Cairo foretold disaster, and no one knows exactly how it was that the gallant force was allowed to proceed to its doom, in the face of the remonstrances of everybody who had any knowledge of the military position. It was, no doubt, convenient to get rid of Arabi's best soldiers, by sending them to the White Nile, but political expediency will not justify the extraordinary supineness which was displayed by those in authority when the lives of as brave a band of officers as ever led a forlorn hope were in stake. Nor does it as yet appear clear whether there are or are not any survivors from the last terrible massacre. Colonel Colborne is despairing on this subject; but, in the curiously unreliable state of the communications in the Soudan during the past year, it is not impossible that there may still be prisoners of whom we have heard nothing, or only the merest rumours. When the Mahdi has been ' smashed,' no doubt we shall learn something more about the tragical end of Hicks Pasha's force. Meanwhile it is a melancholy satisfaction to read the details which Colonel Colborne gives, with graphic simplicity, of the first and successful campaign of Hicks Pasha and his army in the Soudan.
This book originally published in 1884 has been reformatted for the Kindle and may contain an occasional defect from the original publication or from the reformatting.
Colborne was one of the three survivors of the disastrous expedition of European officers which the ill-fated Hicks Pasha led into the Soudan in 1883. He survived by the accident of being on the sick list, and forced to take leave of absence. The Hicks expedition is still wrapped in mystery. Those who saw it depart from Cairo foretold disaster, and no one knows exactly how it was that the gallant force was allowed to proceed to its doom, in the face of the remonstrances of everybody who had any knowledge of the military position. It was, no doubt, convenient to get rid of Arabi's best soldiers, by sending them to the White Nile, but political expediency will not justify the extraordinary supineness which was displayed by those in authority when the lives of as brave a band of officers as ever led a forlorn hope were in stake. Nor does it as yet appear clear whether there are or are not any survivors from the last terrible massacre. Colonel Colborne is despairing on this subject; but, in the curiously unreliable state of the communications in the Soudan during the past year, it is not impossible that there may still be prisoners of whom we have heard nothing, or only the merest rumours. When the Mahdi has been ' smashed,' no doubt we shall learn something more about the tragical end of Hicks Pasha's force. Meanwhile it is a melancholy satisfaction to read the details which Colonel Colborne gives, with graphic simplicity, of the first and successful campaign of Hicks Pasha and his army in the Soudan.
This book originally published in 1884 has been reformatted for the Kindle and may contain an occasional defect from the original publication or from the reformatting.
