The official order concerning equipment for the Corps, issued on 4 August, 1884, included the following: waist kit, bandolier of 50 rounds, rifle, sword bayonet and scabbard, water bottle, and haversack.
The uniform was as follows: White helmet with white pagri, grey frock, yellow-ochre cord breeches, blue puttees, and boots. A glengary was carried in the zulleetah (saddle bag). (Colville, V. I, p. 239). Though spurs were issued they were never used.
There were, however, variations to the uniforms, the Guards and Heavies came over on the saw boat and to distinguish each unit they sewed the initials of their regiments on the right arm of their jackets. Red cloth was used and some examples are RHG (Royal horse Guards - The Blues), 5L (5th Lancers) or 1GG (1st Grenadier Guards). In the last case the number was sewn above the letters "GG".
Even before marching off to the Sudan the Guards dyed their helmets coffee color and used brown leather belts. the exception to this was the contingent of RMLI who arrived in camp in "spotless" white helmet, kits and pouches (Gleichen, p. 61). Though described by Gleichen as wearing regulation grey, Reynolds states that the RHLI of the Camel Corps wore khaki jackets and Bedford cord breeches (Reynolds, V. 35, p. 390). The confusion may be due to the fact that the actual color of what war officially designated "khaki" was closer to grey than it later became. One Marine officer insisted on wearing his red coat and was later wounded by Mahdist rifle fire (Gleichen, p. 174).
It is not clear when a tan khaki began to be worn. One picture of the Battle of Abu Klea by Y.D. Wollen in the National Army Museum in Chelsea shows soldiers in an all khaki uniform with dark blue puttee, they also are wearing a khaki pagri with red stripes crossing it diagonally all the way around. A black and white picture in Marling shows Marling in what appears to be an all khaki uniform (photo opposite p. 132, Marling).
By the end of the camlpaign the Camel Corps was pretty rag-tag. On return to Gakdul some were wearing black serge trousers, some with puttees and others tied up under the knees (Gleichen, p. 243), On return to Egypt from Dongala in June 1885 they were wearing khaki tunics and trousers, but probably without puttees. Many patched their pants with red saddle leather or with sacking. Few had boots, and some wore red Arab slippers (Gleichen p. 289).
Stewart was described as wearing a "shiney Guards' helmet" with an orange silk pagri (Symons), but Gleichen says he wore a yellow pagri. One picture from the Graphic reproduced in Preston's book shows a man that may be Stewart with a colored pagri and a brass spike in his helmet.
Royal Sussex:
All troops stationed in Egypt prior to the Sudan campaign were issued with grey serge uniforms (Gretton, p. 260). One photograph of the Royal Sussex shows the men wearing a variety of clothing; full khaki uniforms, khaki jackets with blue trousers, grey shirts with either blue or khaki trousers (Sandes photo opp. p. 114), The helmets appear also to be khaki. Puttees were not always worn.
Royal Irish:
The Royal Irish marched out from Korti with Buller wearing khaki cotton drill jackets, trousers and helmet covers, grey woolen puttees, rolled greatcoats, wooden water bottles, haversacks, waistbelts and braces and pouches. They were armed with the triangular socket bayonet and had a leather hand-guard sewn around the stock and barrel of their rifles. By the time they returned to Korti their boots were falling to bits, and their uniforms were patched with any material that was available (Gretton, pp. 274, 280, 285).
Naval Brigade:
A picture in Reynolds (v. 35, 0.200) shows the Naval Brigade of the Desert Column in their regulation blue seaman's collar bordered in white, white straw hats with blue hat bands tied with the ends hanging over the back brim. A thin red arm-band is worn around both upper arm. The gaiters and waist-belt are brown, the haversack is white and the bayonet is in a black scabbard with a brass tip. Officers wore double-breasted frock coats and straw hats.
Wollen's painting in the NAM, however, shows the Naval Brigade in all white uniforms, white helmets with blue pagris, and blue seaman's collars.
Gleichen shows the Naval Brigade with white helmets without pagris and either all blue or all white uniforms. The officer is wearing a frock coat with regulation naval cuff insignia. The officer is shown with a sword, and it should be noted that the bayonet the Naval Brigade usd was a specially contrived cutlass with brass cutlass hilt that could be attached to the rifle as a bayonet. It is likely that any variation of white and blue uniforms were worn, with either straw hats or sun helmets.
19th Hussars:
The Hussars were mounted on the same grey Syrian Arab horses, about 18 hands high, that the Egyptian cavalry used (Biddulph, p. 247). The ILN depicts them in white helmets, blue jackets, khaki breeches, blue puttees, brown belts and white haversacks. They may have occasionally worn blue trousers with yellow seam stripes, as such trousers turned up among Gordon's Sudanese at Korti after they had pilfered some of the British soldiers' kits (Gleichen, pp. 210-211).
R.A. and R.E.:
Both the artillery and the engineers were dressed in the grey khaki uniform issued in Egypt. One photo of an R. E. officer shows him in full khaki with no puttees, and with his helmet a darker shade with than his uniform (Sandes, photo opp. p. 114). The R.A. were armed with three 2.5" rifled muzzle loading screw guns, each carried by five camels, (Headlam, pp. 211, 218-19).
Native Drivers:
There were some 120 drivers attached to the Column. They wore a red turban, a blue jersey that reached almost to the knees, white haversack, and "a brass ticket", though it is unclear just what a brass ticket was (Gleichen, p. 107).
Gordon's Sudanese:
The officer of this irregular force were Egyptians and wore the regulation Egyptian uniform with red fez. The troops themselves wore red fezes and white jibbas. They were armed with Remington rifles, spears, a cartridge belt worn around the waist, and sometimes bayonets attached to the cartridge belt. On the march back to Egypt they picked up many things from the British camp and some pictures show them in blue jerseys (with a white "5L" sewn on front) and blue infantry pants (Gleichen, pp. 210-11).
Saddles:
Saddles were various and often of poor quality. Though the Mounted Infantry Camel Regiment was issued with the best, most fell apart after hard use. Two zuleethas (saddle bags) were worn, one on each side. They were white with a broad red border. A brown leather "Namanqua" rifle bucket was worn on the off side over a leather water skin (gubeleh). A long stiff leather Egyptian water bottle (mussek) was worn on the left side. In front a tan 30 pound bag of corn was strapped (three days rations for the camel - this sometime later was replaced by a net-bag of grass. All of this was covered with a red saddle cover. The head stall was black leather. The saddle cover for the Camel Corps, Naval Brigade and all other troops was always red, though I have been unable to locate the peculiar pattern shown in the movie "Khartoum".
CONCLUSIONS
In making rules for wargames one should keep in mind that the Camel Corps fought an foot. They should, when mounted, move faster than infantry but somewhat slower than cavalry, and perhaps have a bigger decrease in movement when dismounting and mounting. Perhaps it shauld take longer for them to go from marching order to a square formation with the camels in a different square or in the center of the main square. Saddles and boxes can be used for cover -- but please, never the camels themselves -- they suffered enough from the British soldier without adding that! As the camels were lashed securely one needn't hold back the usual one out of every four men to secure them as the normal Mounted Infantry -- the entire force can be placed on the firing line.
The Desert Column
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© Copyright 2004 by Milton Soong.
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