ABSTRACT
Huge crowds gathered in Alexandria and Cairo to cheer the battalions of the 1st British Brigade (the 1st Battalions of the Lincolns, Royal Warwickshire, Cameron Highlanders and slightly later the Seaforth Highlanders) as they embarked on the reconquest of the Sudan. Captain Samuel Fitzgibbon Cox (Lincolns) had 'never seen such a sight ... [Cairo] station absolutely packed with the elite of society ... never knew how damned popular 1 was before!!'! Two days later on 9 January 1898, the Royal Warwicks received a rapturous reception on their arrival in Cairo, with regimental bands playing, an immense crowd showering the soldiers with gifts, the Cameron Highlanders providing tea for the men and the 21 st Lancers hosting a dinner for their officers.2 Similar scenes recurred when units of the 2nd British Brigade left for the Sudan in July 1898. The 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards left Gibraltar amid great crowds and cheering, with bands playing 'The British Grenadiers'.l Officers and men fully appreciated that this was an immensely popular undertaking, and that they had the responsibility of avenging Gordon, suppressing Mahdism, and upholding their regimental honour. As MajorGeneral Archibald Hunter assured Captain John Spencer Ewart, 'I hope too that the Camerons cover themselves with glory and that you take front rank position in the profits to be gained,'4 while Drummer W W Taylor remembered leaving Alexandria, with the crowd exhorting: 'Return Warwickshire with honour to your colours.' 5
The four battalions of the 1st Brigade had relatively little recent experience of colonial campaigning. Having spent much of the 1890s either in Britain or in Mediterranean garrisons, the Lincolns, Warwicks and Camerons had joined the British Army of Occupation in Egypt in 1897. Only the Camerons had previously served in the Sudan; they included some officers, such as Major Robert Napier, and a few veterans who had served in the Gordon relief expedition (1884-85) and later
defeated the dervishes at the battle of Ginnis (30 December 1885). The 1st Seaforths, whose commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel R. H. Murray had served in the Sudan (1885), only began their Mediterranean service in 1897, and were brought up to strength by 500 men from the regiment's 2nd Battalion, which had recently served in the Chitral relief expedition. Incorporating these drafts had proved a mixed blessing: 'this Regiment', reflected Lance Sergeant Colin Grieve, 'is not what it used to be - that lot that joined us in Malta have played the mischief with it'.6 Of all the British units, though, the Lincolns particularly impressed dispassionate observers. Corporal George Skinner, Royal Army Medical Corps, commended the workrate and good spirits of their men, while Captain Sir Henry Rawlinson noted that 'on parade the men all looked extremely well-Lincolns and Camerons both better than the Warwicks the Lincolns being the pick of the three'.7
