THE NILE CAMPAIGN 1884-85 AND LONG SERVICE TRIO TO TROOPER J. ALMONDS, ROYAL HORSE GUARDS (THE BLUES), WHO SAW SERVICE AT THE BATTLE OF ABU KLEA, WHERE, POSITIONED AS HE WAS AT THE CORNER OF THE SQUARE WHERE COLONEL BURNABY MADE HIS LAST STAND, HE WITNESSED AT CLOSE QUARTERS THE DEATH OF COLONEL FREDERICK BURNABY, ALMOND'S COMMANDING OFFICER AND ONE OF THE GREAT VICTORIAN MILITARY HEROES, ALMONDS ALSO TAKING PART IN THE ACTION AT ABU KLEA DURING THE DESTRUCTION OF THE 100 STRONG SQUADRON OF BEGARA HORSEMEN. ALMONDS SUBSEQUENTLY SAW SERVICE WITH THE ROYAL HORSE GUARDS DURING THE BOER WAR. Three: Egypt Medal 1882-89, undated reverse, 2 clasps, The Nile 1884-85, Abu Klea (officially named, engraved in sloping block capitals: 1152 TPR. J. ALMONDS. R.(H.G.); Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, Edward VII (officially named, impressed in plain block capitals: 1152 Pte. J. ALMONDS. RL: HORSE GDS:); Khedive's Star, obverse dated 1884-6 (officially named, regimentally impressed naming: RHG 1152). Egypt Medal with scattered surface contact marks overall, partially obscuring last few letters of naming details (as indicated), the regimental number also contact marked but all numbers clearly visible, the bottom left point of the Star also worn from contact with the Egypt Medal, otherwise generally Very Fine, the Long Service Medal somewhat better, Almost Extremely Fine, and a rare combination of medal and clasps to the Royal Horse Guards.
The Abu Klea clasp scarce to the Royal Horse Guards, only 6 officers and 45 other ranks from the regiment seeing service in Egypt during the Nile campaign of 1884-5 with the Heavy Camel Regiment, and only 3 of those officers and 43 other ranks being present at Abu Klea.
Medal accompanied by biographical details, extracts 1881, 1891 and 1911 census returns, 6 pages copied service papers, extract Jack Webb's "The Abu Klea Medal Rolls", extract Egypt Medal roll, confirming medal and clasps, and extracts Queen's South Africa Medal rolls (2) confirming Trooper Almonds also entitled Queen's South Africa Medal with Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal and South Africa 1902 clasps.
Joseph Almonds (surname also spelt Almond) was born in Ruckland, Lincolnshire, on 11/8/1860, the son of John and Emma Almonds. He is recorded in the 1881 census as a 20 year old general labourer resident in Ruckland with his parents. Almonds enlisted into the Royal Horse Guards at Windsor Cavalry Barracks o 28/7/1881. At the time of enlistment he was 20 years and 2 months old, confirmed that he had been born in Ruckland (place of birth mis-spelt in service papers as Rutland) and gave his trade as farm servant. Almonds never rose above the rank of Private and was discharged on 4/11/1902, after 21 years and 100 days service with the colours. In addition to service at home, Almonds saw service in Egypt, 26/9/1884 to 16/7/1885 and in South Africa from 18/1/1901 to 28/7/1902.
Almonds is recorded in the 1911 census as a 50 year old innkeeper resident in the Bull and Dog Inn, Freiston, with his 45 year old wife Elizabeth.
At the start of the battle of Abu Klea the 46 officers and men of the Royal Horse Guards who saw service with the Heavy Cavalry Regiment were positioned at the right rear corner of the British square, with the Mounted Infantry Camel Regiment forming the right front corner of the square, the Guards Camel Regiment forming the left front corner, the Royal Sussex Regiment forming the left rear corner, with the horse mounted 19th Hussars and the desert column's baggage camels positioned inside the square and the 59 officers and men under Lord Beresford with their Gardner gun positioned in the middle of the rear wall of the square, between the 3rd and 4th Companies of Almond's / Burnaby's Heavy Cavalry Regiment.
Lieutenant Colonel The Honorable Reginald Talbot, who commanded the 1st Light Guards at Abu Klea, subsequently wrote a detailed article “The Battle of Abu Klea”, which was published in the monthly journal “The Nineteenth Century” in January 1886. The following description of the battle of Abu Klea has been extracted from that 1886 article.
General Stewart, commanding the Camel Corps, had known since noon on 16th January that the enemy were located in force ahead of him, on the route to the wells at Abu Klea. After a troubled night under fire in a defensive zeraba built of stone and thorn bushes, he ordered his troops to form a square. The Heavy Camel Regiment, made up from the 1st and 2nd Life Guards (1 Company), Royal Horse Guards and 2nd Dragoon Guards (2 Company), 4th and 5th Dragoon Guards (3 Company), Royal Dragoons and Scots Greys (4 Company), and 5th and 16th Lancers (5 Company) was deployed along the rear and around the left-hand rear corner of the square. A Gardner machine-gun, manned by sailors under the command of Lord Charles Beresford, was towed along between the third and fourth companies, dividing the Heavy Camel Regiment into two wings. The square, in total comprising some 1,000 rifles, moved towards the advancing Mahdist force, 16,000 strong, with the slow and irregular progress of the camels inside the square distorting the square.
A slow advance of two miles then took place under heavy fire across steep hillocks of hard sand. As the enemy’s sharpshooters began to pick off his men, one soldier being hit three times, skirmishers being sent out to deal with this threat. This was largely successful, though not before the Adjutant of the Heavy Camel Regiment, Captain Lord St Vincent, had been fatally wounded. During the march, Beresford and others expressed their anxiety about the integrity of the rear of the square. Strings of camels in the centre, carrying ammunition, water and litters for the wounded, were lagging behind. Some of the Royal Dragoons and Scots Greys shifted position to fill a widening gap on the left face, considerably weakening the rear of the square. This was made worse when, on sight of a large enemy force ahead, the square was halted and then immediately moved to higher ground on the right. A simple movement for men, but difficult for camels, many of which remained outside the square, carrying, among others, the wounded Lord St Vincent.
At this point, thousands of Arabs rose from the thick grass of a wooded ravine to the left of the British force and began their main attack. Lieutenant-Colonel Talbot recorded that his men withheld their fire, to let the skirmishers back into the square. Major Byng of the 1st Life Guards was the last but one to make it, the man behind him being overtaken and speared to death. The Gardner gun, moved earlier to fill one of the gaps on the left flank, fired a few rounds before jamming, and its crew were swiftly killed or severely wounded. Talbot was in no doubt that the enemy then took advantage of the opening in the square, hurling themselves "with terrific rapidity and fury upon it". He also acknowledged that this gap had been increased by the actions of Colonel Frederick Burnaby, who had wheeled out the 4th and 5th Dragoons from the rear of the square, with the intention no doubt of bringing their fire to bear.
At this point Burnaby, seeing that, not only on the flanks, but also on the rear, the attack was being developed, rode in front of the company and shouted to the men to wheel back. The order was obeyed, the men stepping steadily backwards. But before they had got back into their original place, the Arabs were in through the interval thus created and through the gap already existing at the left rear corner of the square. The Royals, Greys and Lancers were now attacked in rear by those of the enemy who had succeeded in passing the 4th and 5th Dragoons, and at the same time they were engaged with the enemy in front. A severe hand-to-hand fight ensued, but not a single Arab escaped alive. The affair was a matter of moments, and from first to last not more than five minutes elapsed.
The rear ranks of both the Mounted Infantry and Guards Camel Regiments at the front of the square and the Sussex Regiment and the right wing of the Heavy Camel Regiment had also turned inwards to combat the enemy insurgence. To confuse matters during the fighting, the Life Guards and Royal Horse Guards (Almonds's regiment) mounted on black horses, stationed along the right rear of the square, were charged during the main attack by a squadron of 100 Baggara horsemen, also mounted on black horses, an attack repelled at once with volleys from the Life Guards and Horse Guards which killed thirty animals on the spot. Among those killed at Abu Klea was Colonel Burnaby, who was recorded as being seen fighting outside the square, but when his horse was brought down, he apparently received a mortal wound from a spear through his throat. In the aftermath of the battle over 1,100 enemy dead were counted near the square. The British casualties amounted to 168 dead and wounded, of which 86 (or 50% of the total) were soldiers from the Heavy Camel Regiment. Talbot clearly felt the loss of his men keenly, for he later commissioned a memorial to be carved on an ancient Egyptian temple, then situated on the beautiful island of Philae, on the river Nile just south of Aswan. Beneath a large cross, the carved inscription reads: ‘In memory of 9 Officers & 92 NCOs & Men of the Heavy Camel Regt who lost their lives in the Soudan 1884-5.’ It then lists the casualties under their original regiments, dividing them between those who had been killed in action (74) and those who had ‘died of disease’ (28).
Colonel Frederick Burnaby(1842 –1885) was both physically and figuratively a giant of a man, an army intelligence officer whose adventurous spirit, pioneering achievements, and swashbuckling courage earned an affection in the minds of Victorian public at large. Frederick Burnaby was born in Bedford, the son of the Rev. Gustavus Andrew Burnaby ofSomerbyHall, Leicestershire. Educated atBedford School, Harrow,Oswestry School, and in Germany, legend has it that at Oswestry School, Burnaby could carry two boys under both arms up the stairs of the school house. Burnaby was a huge man for his times, 6ft 4in tall and 20 stone when fully grown, his outsize personality and strength were of legendary proportions. As well as traveling widely in Europe and Central Asia, he mastered ballooning, spoke a number of languages fluently, stood for parliament twice, was fearless in hand to hand combat, and as a result was widely admired by the men who served. As a result, Burnaby became, in his own lifetime, a legendary figure, appearing in many of stories and tales of empire.
Burnaby’s death provoked widespread distress, both on the field of battle at Abu Klea and at home in England. Apparently, immediately after Burnaby was killed many of the officers and men who had fought alongside him sat down and cried. Back in Britain he was widely mourned, and when Queen Victoria was informed of his death, she is reported to have fainted.
There was widespread surprise at the time that Burnaby’s bravery at Abu Klea did not lead to him being awarded the Victoria Cross. This was, perhaps, because many of the articles he had written for the press about the doings of his fellow officers had upset the military establishment, who were also of the belief that Burnaby was the author of his own misfortune, having brought about his own death as a result of leaving the square alone, even if he did so for the best of reasons
Burnaby is commemorated by a portland stone obelisk at St Philip’s Cathedral, Birmingham, which was unveiled on 13th November 1885 by Lord Charles Beresford, who had fought alongside Burnaby at Abu Klea, the obelisk decorated with a bust of Burnaby and a simple one-word inscription in tribute "Burnaby". There is also a memorial window to Burnaby in St Peter’s Church, Bedford, and a pub named The Burnaby Arms in Bedford.
Frederick Burnaby married Alice Francis Hawkins-Whitshed (1860-1934), who in later life was a celebrated mountaineer, author and photographer..
