WITH THE CAMEL CORPS UP THE NILE

An intriguing account of the part played by the Camel Corps in the 1885 expedition mounted – too late, in the author’s opinion – by the Gladstone Government in the forlorn hope of saving Khartoum from the forces of the Mahdi, and rescuing General Gordon. Gleichen was an aristocratic officer of the Grenadier Guards seconded – to his great joy – to the Camel Corps from garrison duty in Dublin. His book is a record of battles fought and won, of dangers run and difficulties overcome – and of ultimate frustration when the ‘worst possible news’ arrives of Gordon’s death. En route the reader learns a great deal about the behaviour and management of camels. With four appendices on the Camel Corp’s composition and losses, and illustrated with the author’s own talented and witty drawings and a map.