On Tuesday 3 March 1885 the biggest crowd Sydney had ever seen packed the streets from Victoria Barracks down to Circular Quay to watch about 750 local men march off to a war in the Sudan. They sailed that afternoon on the troopships Iberia and Australasian, landed at Suakin on the Red Sea on 29 March, and were home again by June. They marched once to Tamai, came under a bit of fire, laid railway line across the desert, and some rode camels. Three men were wounded and a handful died of disease. It sounds small, and in military terms it was. But it was the first time an Australian colony raised its own contingent of soldiers, paid for it, and sent it overseas to fight in one of Britain's wars. People argued about it then and they still argue about what it meant.
I've always been drawn to this one because so much of it happened on streets I walk all the time – Oxford Street, the Barracks at Paddington, George Street and the old wharves where the Opera House forecourt is now. So here's the whole story as best I can piece it together from the War Memorial, the old newspapers and the history books.
Was It Really "Australia's First War"?
It's often called that, and you can see why. The Dictionary of Sydney describes it as "the first time that Australian soldiers had been sent to fight overseas", and the War Memorial calls it the first time "soldiers in the pay of a self-governing Australian colony were to fight in an imperial war". The Army's first battle honour, "Suakin 1885", comes from it.
But it's worth being a bit careful with the word "first". Back in April 1860 the colony of Victoria sent its warship HMCS Victoria to the First Taranaki War in New Zealand. The War Memorial says its crew became "the first colonial military unit committed to active service overseas", and the Navy now counts "New Zealand 1860–61" as its earliest battle honour. Then in 1863 and 1864 around 2,500 men from the Australian colonies signed up for New Zealand's military settler regiments in the Waikato and Taranaki fighting. Those men were recruited by New Zealand though, not sent by an Australian government.
So the fair way to put it is this: the Sudan contingent was the first body of soldiers raised by an Australian colony and sent overseas to fight. That's how Wikipedia and the War Memorial frame it, and that's how I'll frame it too.
The Background – Gordon, the Mahdi and Khartoum
In the early 1880s the Sudan was ruled by Egypt, and Egypt was more or less run by Britain. A Muslim cleric named Muhammad Ahmad began preaching renewal of the faith and freedom from the Egyptians, proclaimed himself the Mahdi – the promised redeemer – and by 1881 was in open revolt. In 1883 an Egyptian army under a retired British officer, William Hicks, went out to crush him and was wiped out near El Obeid, with only about 500 surviving.
The British decided the Sudan should be abandoned and sent General Charles Gordon to Khartoum to organise the evacuation of the Egyptian garrisons. The War Memorial puts it bluntly: Gordon disregarded his instructions, tried to hold on and beat the Mahdi instead, and ended up besieged in Khartoum. A relief force left Cairo in September 1884 and fought its way up the Nile, but it was too late. Khartoum fell on 26 January 1885 after a siege of 313 days, and Gordon was killed.
The British also sent a second force, under Lieutenant-General Sir Gerald Graham, to Suakin, the Sudan's port on the Red Sea, in March 1885. That's the force our men ended up joining.
The News Reaches Sydney
Gordon was a hero right across the Empire, and when the telegraph brought word of his death to New South Wales in February 1885 there was a lot of anger at Gladstone's Liberal government in London for not acting in time. The War Memorial's records say the first report reached Sydney on 11 February.
The Premier, Stuart, was ill, so the man in charge was the Attorney-General, William Bede Dalley, who had been acting Colonial Secretary since 7 October 1884. Dalley, according to the Australian Dictionary of Biography, "electrified Australia" on 12 February 1885 by offering Britain a New South Wales contingent for the Sudan. The ADB entry on Colonel Richardson says the offer was partly at the instigation of Sir Edward Strickland.
The War Memorial says the offer came with news of Canada's own offer of troops, and that to make it more attractive New South Wales offered to pay the contingent's expenses. What was offered was two batteries of artillery with ten 16-pounder guns, fully horsed, and an infantry battalion of 500 men. London accepted but asked that the artillery be cut to one battery of six guns, and insisted the men serve under British command. Similar offers from Victoria, Queensland and South Australia were turned down.
Dalley later explained his aim was "to testify to the readiness of the Australian colonies to give instant and practical help to the Empire". It was done, as one modern group puts it, "without apparent parliamentary approval or debate". Parliament approved it, overwhelmingly, in April, after the men had already sailed.
The Patriotic Fund and the People Who Said No
A Patriotic Fund was set up, and wealthy people put money in. But not everyone was cheering. The War Memorial notes that meetings called to launch the fund and back the government were poorly attended in many working-class suburbs, and many of those who did turn up voted against the fund. In some country centres there was a real anti-war response, and miners in rural districts were said to be in "fierce opposition".
The loudest critic in politics was Sir Henry Parkes. He wrote a fiery letter to the Sydney Morning Herald on 19 February 1885 attacking Dalley's decision. The Daily Telegraph didn't think much of it. On 25 February it called the letter "bad in temper, bad in argument, and bad in all its conclusions", and complained that Parkes had made "newspaper editors, the Chief Justice, the Speaker, the wealthy contributors to the Patriotic Fund, and the Government" all objects of abuse. Parkes called the whole business a "military craze", whipped up, he said, by the press, the government and assorted adventurers.
Then there was the Bulletin. The nationalist weekly, as the War Memorial puts it, "ridiculed the contingent both before and after its return".
The Contingent
The man put in charge was Colonel John Soame Richardson, the commandant of the colony's forces. He was born in Norfolk in 1836, schooled at Rugby, and had served at the siege of Sebastopol in the Crimea. He'd come out to Australia with the 12th Regiment in 1858 and, interestingly, had served in the Taranaki and Waikato campaigns in New Zealand himself before settling in New South Wales. He'd been commandant since 1871.
According to the War Memorial, the establishment agreed on was:
- an infantry battalion of 522 men and 24 officers
- one battery of six field guns with 212 gunners and 200 horses
- a 16-member band
- a Field Ambulance of 4 medical officers, 34 other ranks, seven wagons and 26 horses
The whole thing was raised and embarked in just 14 days after the agreement with Britain. Most of the men were armed with Alexander Henry rifles and carbines, and the ambulance men carried Winchester carbines. They left in scarlet jackets and white trousers.
The War Memorial has a photograph of the infantry volunteers gathered at Victoria Barracks, Paddington, just before they left, and the Dictionary of Sydney holds a picture titled "Preparing for the Sudan, Paddington Barracks 1885".
Tuesday 3 March 1885 – The Farewell
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The government declared a holiday, and the War Memorial says the send-off was described as the most festive occasion in the colony's history. The contingent gathered at Victoria Barracks that morning, said goodbye to their families and marched off just before noon for Circular Quay.
The Evening News of 4 March 1885 gives a terrific picture of the day. Under the headings "Crowds on the Circular Quay. A Terrible Crush. Pathetic Farewells", it said:
"It is needless to say, never before has so large a crowd been gathered together in Sydney as assembled on Tuesday to watch the procession of the Australian contingent from their barracks to the place of embarkation on board the transport vessels at the Circular Quay."
The paper said estimates of the crowd ran between 200,000, 300,000 and 400,000, and reckoned it was probably "somewhere between 250,000 and 300,000". At the Quay alone, it said, there were "not less than 100,000". Vehicles were banned from the area soon after midday. People climbed onto parapets, ledges "and even chimney pots". Ship owners charged people to stand on their decks. Nearly 1,000 people crowded onto the clipper Scottish Chief near the North Shore ferry landing, hanging off the rigging right up to the main royal. Mr Richard A. Watson of the Paragon Hotel and Muir's Hotel let spectators onto their roofs and balconies.
The procession was led by mounted police and the Sydney Light Horse, then the Governor, Lord Loftus, in an open carriage with Dalley at his side. The Evening News says Dalley raised his hat to cries of "Well done, Dalley". Behind came the Cabinet, Major-General Scratchley, the naval officers, the Naval Brigade with their Gatling guns, the Permanent Force, and finally the contingent itself. When the men appeared there was "a loud burst of cheering, which was renewed again and again". Men waved hats and handkerchiefs, and some ladies even took off their bonnets and waved those.
Charles Bayliss photographed the line of troops marching onto Circular Quay under a banner wishing them "God Speed". The white-hulled Iberia is docked behind the building on the quay in his photograph, and the stern of the Australasian is just visible at the edge.
The Dictionary of Sydney also has a picture of Larry Foley's White Horse Hotel in George Street "with the Sudan regiment passing by".
Suakin and the Guards Brigade
The two troopships anchored at Suakin on 29 March 1885. There the men were issued new khaki field uniforms in place of the scarlet and white, and their white helmets and webbing were stained brown to suit the country. They were attached to a brigade of Scots, Grenadier and Coldstream Guards – the ADB calls it being "honoured by being brigaded next to the Guards".
The march to Tamai
Shortly after arriving they marched out with a huge square of about 10,000 men towards Tamai, a village about 30 kilometres inland. Wikipedia gives the start as 2 April. On the way, the War Memorial says, they "saw something of the reality of war" when they halted among the dead from a battle fought 11 days before. There was minor skirmishing that day and again on the next day's march. The Australians, by then at the rear of the square, had three men wounded, none fatally. They reached Tamai, burned whatever huts were still standing, and marched back to Suakin. Colonel Richardson was mentioned in dispatches.
Railway work and guard duty
After Tamai most of the contingent was put to work on the railway line being laid across the desert towards Berber on the Nile, halfway between Suakin and Khartoum. The War Memorial says the men suffered mostly from "the enforced idleness of guard duties" – a long way from the adventure they'd signed up for. The ADB adds that the contingent was affected by fever.
The artillery saw even less. They were posted to Handoub and, with no enemy close enough to fire at, drilled for a month before rejoining the camp at Suakin on 15 May.
The camel corps
When a camel corps was raised, 50 men volunteered straight away. On 6 May they rode out on a reconnaissance to Takdul, 28 kilometres from Suakin. Here the sources tell it differently. Wikipedia says they were heavily involved in a skirmish in which more than 100 Arabs were killed or captured. The War Memorial says the only action that day involved two newspaper correspondents who left the patrol to file their stories, got surrounded, and one was wounded as they fled. On 15 May the camel corps made one last sortie, to bury men killed in the fighting back in March.
The men who died
Nobody in the contingent was killed by the enemy. Those who died, died of disease. The War Memorial holds a photograph of the grave at Suakin of Robert Weir, the first Australian to die on active duty in the Sudan.
Coming Home on the Arab
By May 1885 the British government had decided the campaign wasn't worth it and left only a garrison at Suakin. The contingent sailed for home on the Arab on 17 May.
The Protestant Standard of 27 June 1885 says the Arab came in through the Heads a little before 11 o'clock on the Friday night (19 June). The men had expected to land straight away, but they were put ashore at the Quarantine Station at North Head as a precaution against disease. There wasn't room in the buildings, so tents went up. Boats and steamers came down the harbour so friends could call out to them. Then on the Sunday night the rain started and didn't let up, flooding the tents, and Colonel Richardson ordered everyone back aboard the ship. The War Memorial says one man died of typhoid at the Quarantine Station before they were released.
On Tuesday 23 June the Arab came up to Circular Quay at a quarter past nine in the pouring rain. Richardson's farewell order was read to the men on board, thanking his officers and men and wishing that "the kindly [feeling] of comradeship which has happily animated the Contingent throughout may survive for many a [long] year".
The Protestant Standard describes the men marching ashore at 10 o'clock to bands playing "Home, Sweet Home", dressed in "thin kahkee clothing – a sort of calico" and pith helmets, looking "very miserably cold and wet". The grand review was called off. The procession went by George, Park, College and Oxford Streets to Victoria Barracks, with thousands jammed at the gates. Inside, the wet, shivering men stood while Lord Loftus passed on the Queen's congratulations. Richardson replied, regretting they hadn't been given a greater chance to distinguish themselves. Then they had to stand and listen while representatives of all the colonies read addresses of congratulation. The paper noted that some speakers were "humane enough" to cut theirs short and publish the full text in the papers instead.
Finally the men handed in their gear at the drill shed and were disbanded. Each was given a glass of spirits to keep the cold out, on Dr Mackellar's orders. Wives and mothers came and wrapped their men in overcoats and carried them off home. Country men were put up at the barracks and given free passes home.
The Mockery and the Controversy
The Bulletin kept up its ridicule after they came home, as the War Memorial notes. Dalley paid a price too. The ADB says the effort weakened his health, and in 1888 he told Robert Burdett Smith that he had "only tasted suffering and the grossest misrepresentation" over the Sudan contingent and now scarcely ever opened his mouth about it.
Even so, the War Memorial says it was generally agreed at the time that, however small its military weight, the contingent marked an important stage in colonial self-confidence and proof of the enduring link with Britain. Wikipedia sums up the modern view: it matters not for its size or its casualties, but for what it shows about how strong imperial feeling was in Australia then.
Honours and Medals
The men received the Egypt Medal with the clasp "Suakin 1885" and the Khedive's Star. Richardson was promoted major-general on 15 August 1885 and made a Companion of the Bath. In 1907 the New South Wales infantry regiments descended from the units that supplied the volunteers were given the battle honour "Suakin 1885", which became the Australian Army's first battle honour.
Richardson's own ending was a sad one. He retired in 1892, spent his last years in hospital, and died at Callan Park on 9 June 1896. He was buried at Waverley Cemetery with full military honours.
The Memorials
The Dictionary of Sydney notes that the earliest monuments to Australian soldiers in Sydney are those for the Sudan Contingent and the Boer War. One is a medallion in Sydney Town Hall, designed by Thomas Sapsford in 1885, to mark the departure and return of the contingent.
Down at East Circular Quay, on the sandstone escarpment in the Opera House forecourt, there are two bronze plaques. The top one, paid for by a bequest from Thomas Gunning of Mosman, reads in part:
"The New South Wales contingent for the Soudan War (consisting of some 750 men and 225 horses) embarked on the troopships "Australasian" and "Iberia" at the wharves on the North East side of the Circular Quay on March 3 1885. The contingent returned to Sydney in the troopship "Arab" on June 23 1885."
The Townsville Daily Bulletin of 11 July 1952 reported it was unveiled on 21 June 1952, and that the old "Soudan" spelling was kept on purpose. The lower plaque marks the centenary. The Governor, Air Marshal Sir James Rowland, unveiled it on 3 March 1985, after a parade at Victoria Barracks and a march through Sydney by Navy, Army and Army Reserve units, successors of the original contingent.
Why It Mattered – The Precedent
The Dictionary of Sydney groups the Sudan and Boer War memorials together as Sydney's earliest soldier monuments, and K. S. Inglis called his 1985 history of the contingent The Rehearsal. The Boer War in South Africa followed in 1899. The 1885 contingent had already shown it could be done: a colony could raise volunteers in a fortnight, pay for them, and send them to fight for Britain on the other side of the world.
Not everyone liked that precedent. A modern group campaigning for Parliament to have a say on going to war points to Dalley's 1885 decision, made "without apparent parliamentary approval or debate", as an early example of what they object to. Whatever you think of it, it all started on a Tuesday at Circular Quay, with the whole town watching.
Timeline
- 1881 – Muhammad Ahmad proclaims himself the Mahdi and rises against Egyptian rule in the Sudan.
- 3–4 November 1883 – Hicks's Egyptian army destroyed near El Obeid.
- 18 February 1884 – Gordon reaches Khartoum.
- 7 October 1884 – Dalley becomes acting Colonial Secretary while Premier Stuart is ill.
- 26 January 1885 – Khartoum falls and Gordon is killed.
- 11 February 1885 – First report of Gordon's death reaches Sydney (AWM).
- 12 February 1885 – Dalley offers Britain a New South Wales contingent (ADB; the Richardson ADB entry says 11 February).
- 19 February 1885 – Henry Parkes's letter of protest in the Sydney Morning Herald.
- 3 March 1885 – The contingent marches from Victoria Barracks to Circular Quay and sails on the Iberia and Australasian.
- 29 March 1885 – The ships anchor at Suakin.
- 2–3 April 1885 – The advance on Tamai; three Australians wounded.
- April 1885 – NSW Parliament approves the contingent.
- 6 May 1885 – Camel corps reconnaissance to Takdul.
- 15 May 1885 – Camel corps burial party; artillery rejoins camp at Suakin.
- 17 May 1885 – The contingent sails for home on the Arab.
- 19 June 1885 – The Arab enters Port Jackson; the men go into quarantine at North Head.
- 23 June 1885 – They land at Circular Quay, march through the rain to Victoria Barracks and are disbanded.
- 15 August 1885 – Richardson made major-general.
- 1907 – "Suakin 1885" battle honour awarded.
- 21 June 1952 – Soudan Contingent plaque unveiled at East Circular Quay.
- 3 March 1985 – Centenary plaque unveiled by Governor Sir James Rowland.
Where the Sources Disagree
- The date of the offer. The ADB entry on Dalley and the War Memorial's collection notes say 12 February 1885; the ADB entry on Richardson says 11 February.
- How many men went. The War Memorial gives 522 infantry plus 24 officers and 212 gunners, with a band and ambulance on top. Wikipedia says about 770 men and 200 horses. The Dictionary of Sydney says 758 soldiers. The ADB and the 1952 plaque say about 750. The State Library of Victoria's guide says around 900.
- Horses. 200 for the battery (AWM, Wikipedia), plus 26 for the ambulance (AWM); the plaque says 225.
- The crowd. The Evening News said guesses ran from 200,000 to 400,000 and put it at 250,000–300,000. Wikipedia says more than 200,000.
- The day they came home. Wikipedia and the War Memorial say 19 June, when the Arab arrived. The ADB and the plaque say 23 June, the day they actually landed at Circular Quay after quarantine. The Dictionary of Sydney says they "returned in May", which seems to mean the day they sailed from Suakin.
- The deaths. The Dictionary of Sydney says nine men were lost through illness. Wikipedia says nine died of disease during the return journey. The War Memorial mentions Robert Weir's grave at Suakin and one typhoid death at the Quarantine Station, without giving a total.
- Takdul, 6 May. Wikipedia says the camel corps was heavily involved in a skirmish with more than 100 Arabs killed or captured. The War Memorial says the only action that day involved two newspaper correspondents.
- "Hostilities had ended". The Dictionary of Sydney says the fighting was over before the Australians arrived, but the War Memorial and Wikipedia both describe skirmishing on the Tamai march and three wounded.
My Earlier Posts
- The Sydney Opera House – From Cattle Point and Bennelong Point to Fort Macquarie and Utzon's Sails
- Bennelong Point – Circular Quay East
- Fort Denison – Pinchgut Island – From 1788 to Today
- Customs House – 31 Alfred Street – Circular Quay
- Alfred and Albert Streets – Semi Circular Quay
- The Government Wharf – Circular Quay
- Government House – "The People's Domain"
- Dalley Street – Queen's Place – Charlotte Place
- George Street 1890 Sydney Heritage Walk
- Oxford Street – Darlinghurst – 1788 Onwards
- Sydney Town Hall – Druitt Street and George Street
- Vaucluse from North Head
- Chronology of Important Dates Since White Settlement
Sources
- Australian War Memorial, "Sudan (New South Wales Contingent) March–June 1885", https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/atwar/sudan
- Australian War Memorial collection, P05711.001, Charles Bayliss photograph of the contingent marching onto Circular Quay, 3 March 1885, https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1194599
- Australian War Memorial, "First ship of war" (HMCS Victoria), Wartime 97, https://www.awm.gov.au/wartime/97/first-ship-of-war
- Australian War Memorial, "The river and the redoubts", Wartime 97, https://www.awm.gov.au/wartime/97/river-and-the-redoubt
- Royal Australian Navy, "Deployment of HMCS Victoria to the New Zealand Wars", https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/deployment-hmcs-victoria-new-zealand-wars
- State Library of Victoria, Australian colonial forces research guide: "Sudan 1885" and "New Zealand Wars 1860–1864", https://guides.slv.vic.gov.au/colonialforces/sudan
- Gregory J. Pemberton, "Richardson, John Soame (1836–1896)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/richardson-john-soame-4475
- "Dalley, William Bede (1831–1888)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/dalley-william-bede-3356
- Parliament of New South Wales, "Mr William Bede Dalley, QC (1831–1888)", former members profile
- Dictionary of Sydney, "Sudan War 1885", https://dictionaryofsydney.org/event/sudan_war_1885, and Neil Radford, "War Memorials for the Sudan and Boer Wars" (2014)
- NSW War Memorials Register, "Soudan Contingent Commemorative Plaques, Circular Quay", https://www.warmemorialsregister.nsw.gov.au/memorials/soudan-contingent-commemorative-plaques-circular-quay
- Monument Australia, "Soudan Contingent" (quoting the Townsville Daily Bulletin, 11 July 1952), https://www.monumentaustralia.org/search/display/23292-soudan-contingent
- "The Embarkation", Evening News (Sydney), 4 March 1885, p. 6, Trove, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article111171535
- "Reception of the Soudan Contingent", Protestant Standard (Sydney), 27 June 1885, p. 7, Trove, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article210155546
- "Sir Henry Parkes's Protest", Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 25 February 1885, p. 4, Trove, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article237234542
- No War Without Parliament, "Executive decisions to go to war: 1885", https://warpowersreform.org.au/executive-decisions-to-go-to-war-1885/
- Wikipedia, "New South Wales Contingent", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_South_Wales_Contingent
- Wikipedia, "Mahdist War", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahdist_War
- K. S. Inglis, The Rehearsal: Australians at War in the Sudan, 1885 (Rigby, 1985), National Library of Australia catalogue, https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/1593942
- Peter Stanley (ed.), But Little Glory: The New South Wales Contingent to the Sudan, 1885 (Military Historical Society of Australia, 1985), as cited by the AWM and Wikipedia
- Pictures: Wikimedia Commons (State Library of NSW, Powerhouse Museum, and The War in Egypt and the Soudan, Blackie & Son, 1886), credited under each picture