William Hicks

Colonel William Hicks, also known as Hicks Pasha, (18305 November 1883), was a British soldier who entered the Bombay Army in 1849, and served through the Indian mutiny, being mentioned in dispatches for good conduct at the action of Sitka Ghaut in 1859. In 1861 he became captain, and in the Abyssinian expedition of 1867–1868 was a brigade major, being again mentioned in dispatches and given a brevet majority. He retired with the honorary rank of colonel in 1880. He then entered the service of the Egyptian government, who controlled Sudan. He led the Egyptian army that was defeated at the Battle of Shaykan, in which he was killed and decapitated. Service to the Khedive After the close of the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War, he entered the Khedive's service and was made a Pasha. In 1881, Sudan was controlled by Egypt; Muhammad Ahmad proclaimed himself Mahdi and began conquering neighboring territory and thus threatening the precarious Egyptian control of the territory. Early in 1883 Hicks went to Khartoum as chief of the staff of the army there, then commanded by Suliman Niazi Pasha. Camp was formed at Omdurman and a new force of some 8,000 fighting men collected—mostly recruited from the fellahin of Arabi's disbanded troops, sent in chains from Egypt. After a month of vigorous drilling Hicks led 5,000 of his men against an equal force of dervishes in Sennar, whom he defeated, and cleared the country between the towns of Sennar and Khartoum of rebels.