NAM.2017-09-7-6-55

Photograph of a ceremony to celebrate the return of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards to Wellington Barracks, London, from Khartoum, 6th October 1898. The battalion had taken part in the Battle of Omdurman during the 2nd Sudan War. Several lines of soldiers line up facing each other with their swords or rifles and bayonets held upright. Col Villiers Hatton can be seen in the centre (with pith helmet) and the Duke of Cambridge in a top hat and frock coat. The officers standing in the centre hold their swords up in front of their faces. They have a red cloth grenade on their pith helmets. A crowd of gentlemen and ladies watch, with the general public visible as they try to get a look through the railings. From an album of 99 photographs compiled by or presented to Captain (later Brig-Gen) Ernest Frederick Orby Gascoigne. The album is entitled: ‘Personal album E F O Gascoigne. 1st & 3rd Battalions - 1894-1905’, but covers the period 1892-1905; taken in England and Gibraltar.

Omdurman, Battle of, 1898 (2nd Sudan War 1895-1899)