The Sudanese Battalion c.1897, the history of the Sudanese Battalion, as well as our strictly limited edition wooden Sudanese Battalion Soldier

Sudanese Battalion c.1897.
- Anglo Egyptian Sudan

Sudanese Battalion

My limited edition soldier depicts a Fellah from the 10th Sudanese Battalion c.1897 a Black Corps d'Élite serving in the Anglo Egyptian Sudan.

The Sudan was a collection of small, independent kingdoms and principalities from the beginning of the Christian era until 1820-21, when Egypt conquered and unified the northern portion of the country. Historically, the pestilential swamps of the Suud discouraged expansion into the deeper south of the country. Although Egypt claimed all of the present Sudan during most of the 19th century, it was unable to establish effective control over southern Sudan, which remained an area of fragmented tribes subject to frequent attacks by slave raiders.

In 1881, a religious Mahdi leader named Muhammad ibn Abdalla proclaimed himself the Mahdi, or the “expected one,” and began a religious crusade to unify the tribes in western and central Sudan. His followers took on the name “Ansars” (the followers) which they continue to use today. Taking advantage of conditions resulting from Ottoman-Egyptian exploitation and mal-administration, the Mahdi led a nationalist revolt culminating in the fall of Khartoum in 1885 and the death of General Charles Gordon.

Gordon of Khartoum was commissioned in the Royal Engineers in 1852 and played a distinguished part in the Crimean War (1853-56) & in 1860 volunteered for the 'Arrow' war against the Chinese. In 1862 Gordon's corps of engineers was sent to strengthen the European trading centre of Shanghai, which was threatened by the insurgents of the Taiping Rebellion & became commander of the peasant force raised to defend the city he now became known as 'Chinese Gordon'.

In 1873 he was appointed governor of the province of Equatoria in the Sudan where he mapped the upper Nile, crushed rebellions and suppressed the slave trade.He was to return to the Sudan in 1884 to evacuate Egyptian forces from Khartoum, threatened by Sudanese rebels led by Muhammad Ahmad al-Mahdi. Khartoum came under siege the next month and on 26th January 1885 the rebels broke into the city, killing Gordon and its defenders two days before the arrival of the british relief force.

British Colonial Africana Soldier Collection

Click here for details of the hand carved wooden Kings African Rifles Soldiers and Colonial Africana Soldiers.

Wooden Soldier Regimental Histories

All of our wooden soldiers are made in strictly limited editions, click here for a regimental history of each soldier.