William Hicks

William Hicks (* 1830, † November 1883 at El Obeid in Sudan ), also known as Hicks Pasha, was a British officer and Egyptian Major General. He was commander of the Egyptian forces in the battle of El Obeid.

Life

Hicks joined in 1849 as an ensign in the army of the British East India Company a. In 1857 he fought in the Sepoy Mutiny. After the dissolution of the army of the East India Company Hicks served in the British Indian Army. With this he took 1867/68 in the expedition to Ethiopia (then Abyssinia ) by Robert Cornelis Napier part. There he served as a captain on the staff of the 2nd Brigade. In 1880 he was promoted to colonel.

In the Turkish -Egyptian Sudan in 1881 broke from the Mahdi uprising. After taking El Obeids by the Mahdists, in January 1883 the government of the viceroy of Egypt, Tawfiq recognized the danger. As the Egyptian army, but was disbanded after the Urabi revolt and the newly-formed troops under the British Sirdar ( Commander in Chief ) Evelyn Wood only 6,000 men were strong and barely operational, had to be reactivated 10,000 men of the Army Urabis. In the spring of 1883 these and all other available Egyptian troops were deployed under Suliman Niazi Pasha. Chief of Staff William Hicks, who had been entered into Egyptian services and appointed Pasha.

Hicks came on March 3 to Khartoum. After a month of training of troops in Omdurman, he marched with 5,000 men to Sennar. On April 29, he was attacked at Morabia of 45,000 mostly mounted Arabs. Hicks successfully fought a brilliant victory. Part of his troops, he was then standing on the White Nile, returned to Khartoum and organized a new expedition corps.

In early August we transferred Hicks in command of all standing in Sudan Egyptian troops, with the task of an expedition to Kordofan, to recapture El- Obeids perform. On September 9, 1883 Hicks moved with 14,000 Egyptian soldiers up the Nile as far as Duem, where he built a strong attachment which he had guarded by 2,000 men. On the march his army suffered from the constant attacks of the Mahdi, water shortages and desertion. On November 1, she approached from the southwest of the town of El Obeid and suggested there, the vanguard of the Mahdi. Then Hicks temporarily divided his army. Surprisingly, he was attacked on November 3 of greatly superior forces at Melbejs and Kasgil. He succeeded indeed to unite after heavy fighting the troops on the 4th of November, but the army had been forced out of the water points and had all the ammo. The whole army was destroyed in the battle of El Obeid, and Hicks was killed in battle.