The Battle of Atbara

Join Peter Hart as he explores the often-forgotten Battle of Atbara, a pivotal event during the war in Sudan that made Kitchener a household name.

At the height of European colonialism in the 1880s, control over north-eastern Africa was a political minefield into which Prime Minister William Gladstone was unwilling to step. This changed when his emissary Charles Gordon was besieged in Khartoum, and the city became the focal point for war.

Injustices were administered, bloody battles fought and civilians caught in the crossfire. Among the British officers were figures who would later adopt starring roles in the First World War, such as Egyptian Army sapper Captain Herbert Kitchener.

Drawing on the testimonies of men who fought there, Peter Hart will examine the events of the Battle of Atbara (1898) and how it fits into the wider campaigning in Egypt and Sudan.

About the speaker

Peter Hart worked as an oral historian at the Imperial War Museum from 1981 to 2020. He is the author of several books on the First and Second World Wars, and has recently published ‘Chain of Fire’, which explores the campaigns in Egypt and the Sudan between 1882 and 1898.