This battle honour is borne only by the Prince of Wales's (North Staffordshire) Regiment, and was awarded to them in recognition of their conduct during the operation leading to the action of Hafir, in the month of September, 1896.
Eleven years had elapsed since the engagements on the Nile and at Tofrek, and during those eleven years the process of reorganizing the Egyptian army had been ceaselessly carried on under the direction of the British officers lent to the Khedive. Sir Evelyn Wood had been succeeded by General Grenfell, and Grenfell by General Kitchener. Our Consul-General at Cairo occupied a unique position, for he was the virtual ruler of Egypt. A soldier by profession, and one of the earliest of the Staff College graduates, Sir Evelyn Baring had profited by his experience in many appointments, in all of which he had acquired ripe stores of priceless knowledge. Soldier, financier, diplomatist, he was facile princeps in all; and though Sir Herbert Kitchener was the General who broke the back of Mahdiism, the brain which devised and the hand which guided the machinery were those of Sir Evelyn Baring. During those eleven years the Egyptian army had on more than one occasion been pitted against the Mahdi's troops. The men had learnt self-reliance, and possessed the most boundless faith in their British officers. Step by step the army was converted into a battle machine. The battalions of fellaheen were stiffened with battalions of blacks from the Soudan. No better fighting material exists in Africa. And as it improved in value, so were the necessary measures taken to break the power of the Mahdi. The railway was pushed farther south up the Nile, a strong brigade of native troops was despatched from India to Suakin, and the Egyptian army, stiffened with but one British regiment, taught that it was now able to face the Mahdi's men. At Firket, in May, 1896, the first of these combats took place, and in September, at Hafir, a decisive success was gained, which opened the road to Dongola. The 64th (North Staffordshire) Regiment—the only corps which bears the honour on its colours—was not actually engaged, and suffered no casualties at the hands of the enemy; but it lost heavily by disease in the operation leading up to the action, and so has been authorized to assume the battle honour.
In the meantime the Khalifa was not idle. He recalled Osman Digna from Suakin, and personally superintended the organization of his troops at Omdurman, opposite Khartoum. Kitchener's force was gradually strengthened. No less than thirteen gunboats had been brought up the Nile in sections, and, being of shallow draft, were able to co-operate with the troops on the banks. The time had now come for the final attempt to reconquer the Soudan. In January, 1898, Kitchener's force was further reinforced by a brigade of British troops under Major-General Gatacre, an officer who had shown himself possessed of the highest attributes of a soldier in our Indian frontier wars. The army that now faced the Khalifa on the Atbara River comprised Gatacre's brigade (the Warwicks, Lincolns, Seaforth, and Cameron Highlanders), three brigades of Egyptian troops, with a brigade of Egyptian cavalry and the camel corps. On April 5 the Sirdar made a careful reconnaissance of the Khalifa's position, and on the early morning of the 8th commenced a severe bombardment of the entrenchments behind which the Khalifa's forces lay.
Atbara, April 8, 1898.
This battle honour is borne by the
Royal Warwicks.
Lincolns.
Seaforth Highlanders.
Cameron Highlanders.
It commemorates the action fought by the army under Sir Herbert Kitchener, prior to the capture of Khartoum and the overthrow of Mahdiism. In our earlier dealings with the forces of Mahdiism, even when they were opposed to British troops, we had always found the enemy ready to meet us. At El Teb and Abu Klea, at Tamai and Tofrek, they had never hesitated to charge our squares. Now a different system of tactics was inaugurated, showing that they had learnt a bitter lesson. The fact that the Mahdists awaited them behind entrenchments, instead of charging down sword or spear in hand, naturally infused courage into our own black troops, and when, after an hour's bombardment, Kitchener stormed the enemy's position, Egyptian fellaheen vied with kilted Highlander as to who should lead the way to the front. Our success was complete: over 3,000 of the enemy were killed, our losses totalling 88 killed and 472 wounded, in both British and Egyptian forces.
| Regiments. | Officers. | Men. | ||
| K. | W. | K. | W. | |
| 1st Batt. 6th R. Warwicks | - | 1 | 2 | 11 |
| 1st Batt. 10th Lincolns | - | 3 | 1 | 13 |
| 72nd Seaforth Highlanders | 2 | 4 | 5 | 22 |
| 79th Cameron Highlanders | 3 | 1 | 13 | 44 |