13th Bengal Lancers pursuing Egyptian infantry
soldiers after the Battle of Tel El Kebir. Click to enlarge.
The Egyptian troops wore Turkish uniforms of white tunic and
trousers, spats and fezes and were armed with single shot Remington
rifles.
Winner: The British and Indian Army.
British Regiments:
N/A Battery, Royal Horse Artillery
1st Life Guards
2nd Life Guards
Royal Horse Guards
4th Dragoon Guards
7th Dragoon Guards
19th Hussars
3 batteries of the Royal Artillery: N/2, A/1 and D/1.
Royal Artillery guns galloping into the Egyptian lines at the
Battle of Tel El Kebir. Picture by John Charlton RI.
The Foot Guards at the Battle of Tel El Kebir.
Picture by R Caton Woodville. Click to enlarge.
5th and 6th Batteries of the Royal Artillery, siege artillery
Royal Engineers: pontoon and telegraph troops, 8th and 17th
Companies.
2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards
2nd Battalion, Coldstream Guards
1st Battalion, Scots Guards
2nd Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment
2nd Battalion, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry
1st Battalion, Black Watch
3rd Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps
2nd Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment
2nd Battalion, Highland Light Infantry
1st Battalion, Royal Irish Fusiliers
1st Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders
1st Battalion, Gordon Highlanders
1st Battalion, Cameron Highlanders
Parade through Cairo on the return of the Khedive
after the British Victory at Tel-El-Kebir. Click to enlarge.
Indian Regiments:
2nd Bengal Cavalry (Gardner’s Horse)
6th (King Edward’s Own) Bengal Cavalry
13th Bengal Lancers (Watson’s Horse)
2nd Queen’s Own Sappers and Miners
7th Bengal Infantry (Rajputs)
20th (Brownlow’s) Punjab Infantry
29th Bombay Infantry (Baluchis)
Account: Egypt in the late 19th Century, ruled by the Khedive,
remained a nominal part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Britain and
France maintained a substantial interest in the country due to the
Suez Canal, in which both countries had invested heavily and which
provided the most direct route to their Asian colonies; India and
Australia for Britain and Indochina for France. In the 1870s Egypt,
through mismanagement and corruption, lurched towards financial
collapse and political instability. Britain and France installed a
commission to supervise Egypt’s government. In 1881 Colonel Ahmed Arabi Bey, a native Egyptian officer of the Egyptian Army with other
The Royal Irish Regiment storming Egyptian
entrenchments
at the Battle of Tel El Kebir.
Egyptian officers launched a revolt against the Khedive and the
British and French. A British naval squadron under Admiral Seymour
bombarded the defences of Alexandria Egypt’s main port on the
northern coast on 11th July 1882. A British military force assembled
under Lieutenant-General Sir Garnet Wolseley to invade Egypt, with
the purpose of capturing Cairo and restoring the Khedive as nominal
ruler and Anglo-French control of the country.
Soldiers of the Indian Army in Egypt (the
Seaforth Highlanders still wear the trews
of the old 72nd Regiment). Click to enlarge.
The leading elements of the British force landed at Alexandria in
the second week of August 1882. The aims of the force were to secure
the Suez Canal that ran North-South in the East of Egypt and then to
march on Cairo, the capital of the country, which the rebels were
threatening to destroy in the event of an invasion.
An Anglo-Indian force was sent from India to join the British
contingent in the Suez Canal.
Sir Garnet Wolseley and his staff in Egypt.
Click to enlarge.
The landing at Alexandria was a feint. General Wolseley concealed
his true plan from everyone except his immediate staff, which was to
land at Ismailia, at the Northern end of the Suez Canal and to march
West to Cairo, attacking Arabi’s army in its positions at Tel-El-Kebir
on the railway and main irrigation canal.
The British contingent landed at Ismailia around 20th August 1882
securing the local barracks and canal facilities, while the
Anglo-Indian contingent came up the canal from the Persian Gulf in
the South.
At 4am on 24th August 1882 General Wolseley’s army marched out of
Ismailia along the line of the railway, moving West towards Cairo,
to attack Arabi’s army at the town of Tel-El-Kebir situated on the
line of the railway and irrigation canal.
Royal Marine Light Infantry drinking from a water
camel after the Battle at Kassassin. Click to enlarge.
Arabi’s army had in the meanwhile dammed the irrigation canal that
ran alongside the railway with the aim of cutting off the water
supply to the Anglo-Indian army and the town of Ismailia.
General Graham’s brigade was pushed forward to Kassassin where there
was a lock on the irrigation canal. Graham’s brigade formed in
position across the railway line and canal.
Royal Horse Artillery of N/A Battery coming into action.
Click to enlarge.
Late on 24th August 1882 an Egyptian force, comprising guns and
infantry, appeared to the North of Graham’s position. Graham engaged
them. Seeing that the Egyptians’ flank was exposed, Graham directed
Major General Drury-Lowe to attack the Egyptians with the cavalry
brigade.
Black Watch after the capture of the
Egyptian entrenchment at the Battle of
Tel El Kebir. Click to enlarge image.
Drury-Lowe lead forward his mounted force comprising a composite
regiment of Household Cavalry (a squadron from each of 1st Life
Guards, 2nd Life Guards and the Royal Horse Guards, the ‘Blues’) and
7th Dragoon Guards with 4 guns of N/A Battery, Royal Horse
Artillery.
Drury-Lowe was aided in reaching the battle line by the gun flashes
in the gathering darkness. The first fire was opened by the
Egyptians. Drury-Lowe engaged them with his guns and then launched
the Household Cavalry in a charge. The Egyptian infantry were swept
away and their guns abandoned and captured in the ‘Moonlight Charge’
of the Battle of Kassassin.
Informed of this success Graham returned to his positions at
Kassassin.
General Sir Garnet Wolseley completed the build up of his army
around the Kassassin position by 12th September 1882. Arabi’s
Egyptian army lay at Tel-El-Kebir some 6 miles distant. Tel-El-Kebir
comprised a small town to the South of the line of the canal and the
Cairo-Ismailia railway that ran parallel and to the North of the
canal.
The Charge at Kassassin. Click to enlarge.
Over the preceding weeks the Egyptian army of some 20,000 soldiers
with 59 guns, some of them modern German Krupp made weapons, had
built a length of entrenchment starting with redoubts at the canal
and railway and stretching north some 3 miles to the end of a raised
section of ground. A second section of entrenchment covered the
Egyptian camp to the rear.
Highlanders storming the Egyptian entrenchment
at the Battle of
Tel-El-Kebir. Click to enlarge.
General Wolseley resolved to attack the Egyptian line at dawn,
following a night approach march. His army formed up with the 2nd
Division, commanded by Lieutenant General Sir Edward Hamley, on the
left; the Highland Brigade leading with the second brigade of the
Division in reserve immediately to its rear. The 1st Division took
the right with Major General Graham’s brigade to the front and the
Guards Brigade commanded by the Duke of Connaught, in reserve. The
guns, commanded by Colonel Goodenough, advanced in the area between
the 2 reserve brigades. The cavalry brigade commanded by Major
General Drury-Lowe, augmented to a division by the addition of the
Indian regiments, took the right of the army, conforming to the
Guards Brigade, its role being to sweep around the Egyptian flank
once the infantry had stormed the entrenchments and make for Cairo
to prevent the destruction of the Egyptian capital by Arabi’s
rebels.
First Life Guards passing Hyde Park Corner on their
return to Knightsbridge Barracks from Egypt in a
sea of well-wishers. Click to enlarge image.
The Indian brigade was to advance along the canal/railway line on
the South side, to clear the Egyptian redoubts in that area, and
take the town of Tel-El-Kebir, before moving on to the next station
up the line, Zag-a-Zig.
Black Watch storming the Egyptian lines at the Battle
of Tel El Kebir. Picture by Alphonse De Neuville.
Click image to enlarge.
The direction of the night-time advance was to be supervised by
Lieutenant Rawson, Royal Navy, navigating by the stars from the left
flank.
The night march to the entrenchments went surprisingly smoothly,
except that the advancing army drifted to its right. Dawn broke with
the Highland Brigade within 150 yards of the Egyptian line. A heavy
fire immediately broke out. The 4 regiments of the Highland Brigade,
led by its commander, Major General Allison, and General Hamley, the
Divisional Commander, stormed into the entrenchments, the two centre
regiments, the Gordons and Camerons leading. The Black Watch on the
right of the brigade found the resistance hard to overcome, until
supported by 3rd Battalion the King’s Royal Rifle Corps from the
divisional reserve. On the left the Highland Light Infantry were
unable to break into the entrenchments until re-inforced by the Duke
of Cornwall’s Light Infantry from the reserve brigade.
The Moonlight charge by the Household Cavalry at Kassassin before the Battle of Tel El Kebir.
Illustration by Harry Payne.
The Khedive takes the salute from British
Regiments in
Cairo at his Restoration Parade. Click to enlarge.
Royal Artillery gun team and British infantry.
Click to enlarge.
On the right, General Graham’s brigade met heavy resistance but
drove the Egyptians from their trenches with the support of guns
from the centre.
Following the success of the infantry attack, General Drury-Lowe
took his cavalry division in a sweep around the Egyptian left flank
and rode down the Egyptian rear towards the bridge crossing the
canal into Tel-El-Kebir, accelerating the route of the retreating
Egyptian troops.
To the South of the canal, the Seaforth Highlanders attacked the
Egyptian redoubt while and 20th Punjabis (Brownlow’s) moved around
the Egyptian right flank and stormed a village from which fire was
being directed, both battalions supported by 7th Bengal Native
Infantry and 29th Bombay Native Infantry.
The Charge of Drury Lowe's Cavalry at Kassasin, painting by
Christopher Clark, RI
Captured Egyptian soldiers after the
Battle of Tel el Kebir. Click to enlarge.
The Indian brigade then
moved into the town of Tel-El-Kebir. The battle was finished with
the Egyptian army in rout.
Following the battle the cavalry division secured Cairo on 14th
September 1882 and accepted the surrender of Arabi. On 25th
September 1882 the Khedive re-entered his capital escorted by
British and Indian troops.
HM Queen Victoria giving war medals to Indian Army
veterans of the War in Egypt. Click to enlarge
Casualties:
The Egyptians are said to have suffered 2,000 dead and
an unquantified number of wounded. 66 guns were captured.
The British and Indian casualties were: 9 officers and 48
non-commissioned ranks killed and 27 officers and 353
non-commissioned ranks wounded. 22 men were reported missing.
Follow-up:
The Egyptian War began Britain’s involvement in Egypt and
the Sudan, leading to the campaign in the Sudan to attempt the
rescue of General Gordon in 1898. British troops finally left Egypt
and the Sudan after the Second World War.
A Life Guard trooper describing the battle
to his comrades left in London. Click to enlarge.
Regimental anecdotes and traditions:
• While planning the campaign in London General Wolseley said he
would win the war in a battle in the area of Tel-El-Kebir around the
middle of September 1882, which is exactly what happened.
• Lieutenant General Sir Edward Hamley, commanding the 2nd Division,
was a veteran of the Crimean War, having had horses shot under him
at the Battles of the Alma and Inkerman. A Royal Artillery officer,
General Hamley wrote a popular history of the Crimean War.
• For some reason a correspondent from the Kolnische Zeitung
accompanied the British army. He wrote of the army: “… The private
soldiers vary much more than ours. There are among them old and
young, weak and strong. In general, the strong predominate. Many of
them are splendid men, with muscles like those of the ‘dying
gladiator’. The uniform is the red tunic and Indian mud-coloured
helmet. The Household Cavalry, Rifles, Marines and Artillery do not
wear
British cavalry capturing Egyptian soldiers after the
Battle of Tel El Kebir. Illustration by R Caton Woodville
for the Illustrated London News. Click to enlarge
red tunics. All, however, wear the sun helmet, which is of a
beautiful shape, but an ugly colour. They also wear a flannel shirt
and needlessly warm woolen trousers. The little wooden water-bottle
that each soldier carries at his belt appears very practical, as the
water keeps cooler than in flasks of tin….. The Hussars and Dragoons
are to be distinguished only by their leggings, as they also wear
red tunics and helmets. The Indian Cavalry look well in their
uniform which resembles that of the Cossacks. They carry lances;
their pointed shoes are in the style of the fifteenth century. All
these men have gipsy faces with beautiful fiery eyes. They move with
a cat-like softness, peculiar to all southern Asiatics. These
Indians know better than any one else how to forage and steal. Among
the British officers, especially the Guards, are crowds of lords
with £10,000 a year and more, but without knowing it beforehand, no
one would find out…. They have almost unlimited as regards uniform
when not on duty. If it is difficult for the Continental European to
distinguish between German regiments, it is more so when British
officers not on duty wear the half military, half civilian costume.
They appear in yellow leather lace-boots and gaiters, fancy coats,
broad belts, gigantic revolver-pockets, scarfs, etc….As far as I was
able to judge, they did not trouble themselves much about their
men….”
British cavalry preventing the Egyptions from blowing
up a bridge after the Battle of Tel El Kebir.
Illustration by R Caton Woodville in the
Illustrated London News. Click image to enlarge.
• The Egyptian campaign formed a clear marker in the change of
campaign dress to the more utilitarian. The Royal Marine Light
Infantry and some of the other regiments abandoned pipe clay and
stained their white equipment and helmets with tea and
tobacco-juice. Several of the Indian regiments already wore grey or
drab which was adopted by British regiments. New drab jackets
arrived for the army, but too late for the fighting.
• During the attack on the Egyptian entrenchments one of the guns of
N/2 Battery of the Royal Artillery broke a wheel. The battery and
its successor took the nickname ‘The Broken Wheel Battery’.
Decorations:
The troops involved in the Egyptian campaign received
the British medal for Egypt, 1882, with the clasp, where
appropriate, Tel-El-Kebir. They also received the Khedive’s bronze
star from the Khedive of Egypt.
References:
• War on the Nile by Michael Barthorp.
• British Battles by Grant.
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