11TH SUDANESE BATTALION CAP BADGE?

[sabrigade]

XIth Bn EA badge.jpg

This cap badge is also part of my Sudan Collection but I have not been able to confirm time period worn or used.

[Eddie Parks]

Would that be this lot?

"On the 27th November 1924 a small number of Sudanese Officers and men of the 11th Sudanese Battalion seized the Military Hospital compound in Khartoum and having killed a British Doctor and an N.C.O. barricaded themselves in the Officers Mess. Here they held out for many hours against elements of two British Battalions and a Field-Gun, inflicting a number of casualties on the British. Eventually, however, their stronghold was reduced to rubble and most of the mutineers were killed or wounded. Four of the ringleaders were court-martialled and executed."

CO was Lt Col Bramwell Henry Withers OBE

[zob]

Hi,

Yes - the very same.

After the 1924 mutiny which had been fuelled by the assignation of the Governor General Sir Lee Stack only a few days before on the 19th November, a 24 hour ultimatum was delivered to the Egyptian Prime Minister Zaghloul Pasha - ordering the withdrawal of all Egyptian troops and civil servants from the Sudan. Egypt withdrew its army within a few days, thus making the Home Government ostensibly responsible for the creation of an independent Sudanese army for the defence of Egypt's most southern border. This was quickly realised with the establishment of the Sudan Defence Force, using only the Arab and Sudanese elements that were formally attached to the Egyptian army. The 11th Sudanese however, don't seem to have made it on the new establishment - only the 9th, 12th, 13th, 1st Provisional and 2nd Provisional Infantry battalions were to be incorporated, and of these only the 9th Infantry Bn., remained beyond 1927 until finally being withdrawn in 1930. Of those battalions that had been disbanded prior to 1927, most their manpower was used a cadre for the other units that were to make up SDF.

Zob

[sabrigade]

The Khartoum Military School was also involved in this and this led to the closure of the School. I have an award given annually to the best cadet at the school by the Sirdar. This is some of the research I have done :

As early as 1900, it was proposed that a Military School for the Sudan be established.

One reason was to keep the Sudanese soldiers away from the perceived negative political influence that the British government felt was part of the learning culture in the Egyptian Military College.

The Khartoum Military College opened on 14 May 1905 with 14 cadets. This number was increased in 1909 to 40 cadets and to 50 in 1914.

Cadets came from the best families in the Sudan and were usually the sons of former officers and soldiers. From 1912, a selection committee convened twice a year and they recommended candidates to the Sirdar.

Military Law, Khedivial and army regulations, official letter writing, arithmetic, drill and fieldwork, horsemanship, musketry and signalling were some of the subjects taught at the School.

A 2 week annual training camp was also held from 1908.

Northern Sudanese graduates were usually posted to the Camel Corps and their Southern compatriots to the Sudanese Battalions.

The first Commandant of the School was an Egyptian Officer but he was then replaced by British Officers. The School had been recognized as a point of political dissent by the Sirdar who stated that close observation of activities of the cadets was required.

On 9 August 1924, cadets of the School went over to open mutiny and demonstration. This resulted in the survivors being interned on the Nile River in gunboats and the school being shut down.