A fine Egypt and Sudan D.C.M. group of three awarded to Private R. Harridine, Royal West Kent Regiment, for defence of Ambigol Wells Fort, 2-5 December 1885

Distinguished Conduct Medal, V.R. (2551: Pte. R. Harridine. 1/Rl. W. Kent: R. Dec: 85) small area of erasure before number; Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, undated reverse, 1 clasp, The Nile 1884-85 (2551. Pte. R. Harridine. 1/Rl. W. Kent R.); Khedive’s Star 1884-6, unnamed as issued, pitting from Star, nearly very fine (3) £3000-4000

Provenance: Glendinings, May 1986.

D.C.M. awarded for the defence of the Ambigol Wells, 2-5 December 1885. Recommendation submitted to the Queen, 18 November 1886.

Robert Harridine served with the 1st Battalion, Royal West Kent Regiment in Egypt and the Sudan. In November 1885 the Sudan Frontier Force was redeployed to counter a build-up of Dervishes near Ginnis. Harridine found himself at the sandbagged post or small fort at Ambigol Wells, which was about 20 miles north-east of Akasha, surrounded by low hills and protected by a watering tank and a pump. It was initially garrisoned by 35 (some accounts say 25) men of the 1st Royal West Kent Regiment under the command of Lieutenant W. R. N. Annesley, and detachments from the 8th Railway Company R.E. and the 4th Telegraph Section R.E.

Annesley and his men had been dropped off at the fort on 7 November during the move of his battalion by rail to Akasha. During the night of 1-2 December the enemy damaged a portion of the railway line some seven miles south-west of Ambigol Wells. When patrols reached the scene of the damage it was found that the enemy had already disappeared and repairs were put in hand. On the following morning Annesley left the fort to shoot sand grouse but noticed that the birds he later killed had no seeds in their crops. Since they had not fed that morning, Annesley deduced that they may have been disturbed by the enemy at a well at Haumagh, some eight miles out in the desert. He consequently ordered his men into the fort rather than remain camped outside. On 2 December the first attack took place when an enemy force of between 600 and 800 men, mounted on camels and horses but with some foot, and with one brass gun, were driven off with some loss. However, they still managed to pull up the telegraph wire running alongside the railway and did further damage to the railway line itself.

Early in the morning of 3 December a train arrived at the fort with a half company of the Royal Berkshire Regiment under Lieutenant H. G. Fitton. Also in the train was Captain J. A. Ferrier of the 8th Railway Company who assumed overall command. Following the arrival of the train the enemy renewed his attack and cut the line to the north. The garrison at the fort had also been joined by a small party of Mounted Infantry under Sergeant A. M. Stewart, 2nd Durham Light Infantry. The following morning the fort had been invested on three sides while on the fourth there were some wagons, one of which contained 7,000 rounds of ammunition. The ammunition was brought in under heavy fire by a party under Stewart, and further sorties were made under fire to bring in telegraph instruments and other items. It was for this action that Harridine and Privates T. B. Ralph and H. C. Simpkin were awarded the D.C.M.:

‘For having at Ambigol Wells, a small fort on the Nile, on the 13th [sic] December, 1885, when beset by about 800 rebels, volunteered, in conjunction with some men of the 1st Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment, to cross under a heavy fire to a train and bring back ammunition, the supply of which, in the Fort, was becoming exhausted. This they succeeded in doing with the loss of one man of the Royal Berkshire Regiment.’ (The Queen’s Own Gazette refers)

On 4 December Sergeant Stewart and two men set out for Akasha for reinforcements and about nine miles from that place met a relieving force under General Butler. In the meanwhile Lieutenant H. de Lisle, of the Durham Light Infantry, had ridden out with a small patrol from Akasha to Ambigol Wells on his own responsibility, accompanied by Major Hassan Radwan of the Egyptian Artillery. He penetrated the enemy line investing the fort and learned from Ferrier that the fort’s water supply was cut off and ammunition reduced to about 30 rounds per man. Leaving Major Radwan at the fort, he then rode back with two men and managed to push his way through a gap in the enemy’s position, being pursued by a horde of mounted spearmen. He succeeded in reaching Butler in the evening just as the latter, having been informed by another patrol that the enemy had gone, was about to return to Akasha. As a result of de Lisle’s news, Butler turned about and relieved the fort early the next morning, the enemy having evacuated his position during the previous night.

Harridine and Ralph received their D.C.M.s at a parade of the Infantry Brigade at Gibraltar, attended by the Governor (Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Hardinge), 15 January 1887.

Sold with copied research, including an article by P. E. Abbott entitled Distinguished Conduct Medals for the Defence of Ambigol Wells 2-5 December 1885.