Charles George Gordon Gallery

The Nile Expedition, 1884-85: The Naval Brigade...rescuing Sir Charles Wilson, 1885, (1901)

The Nile Expedition, 1884-85: The Naval Brigade under Lord Charles Beresford rescuing Sir Charles Wilson, February 1885, (1901). The Nile Expedition (or Gordon Relief Expedition) was a British mission to relieve Major-General Charles George Gordon who was besieged at Khartoum in the Sudan. The expedition down the River Nile arrived two days after Gordon, and the entire garrison of between 5,000 and 10,000, were slaughtered. From "The Illustrated London News Record of the Glorious Reign of Queen Victoria 1837-1901: The Life and Accession of King Edward VII. and the Life of Queen Alexandra". [London, 1901]

© The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Too Late!, 1885. Artist: Joseph Swain

Too Late!, 1885. Britannia mourns the loss of General Gordon. When trouble started to loom in Egypt, the British government sent one of the country's finest soldiers to sort the matter out. Upon arrival in Cairo, Gordon had set off without an escort to the troublespot of Khartoum. However, he had then become stranded there without support and the Mahdi, the local government officer from Sudan, leading the revolt against Egyptian mismanagement of the Sudan, had eventually taken Gordon's citadel. Plans to relieve Gordon had been delayed in London by the government's concentration on the 1884 Reform Act. Gordon died at the hands of the Mahdi two days before help arrived on the 28th January 1855. From Punch, or the London Charivari February 14, 1885

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