Abyssinia (battle Honour) - The Abyssinian Campaign of 1868

The Abyssinian Campaign of 1868

A diplomatic contretemps by the British Foreign Office led to a rupture of relations between Britain and Ethiopia. The Ethiopian monarch Tewodros had imprisoned a number of Europeans, mostly British and German, including the British Consul, Charles Duncan Cameron, in 1864. A diplomatic mission led by Hormuzd Rassam to gain their freedom, which entered the country in 1866 after numerous delays, met the same fate. In order to obtain their release and punish the offender, an expeditionary force consisting of units from the Bombay and Bengal Armies was despatched from Bombay. The force disembarked on the Red Sea south of Massawa in 1868, traversed 500 kilometres using native labour for road construction, crossed mountain ranges as high as 2,970 metres to storm the Imperial fortress at Magdala to release the prisoners. In the end, only a brief battle was fought against the men who were still loyal to Tewodros, two of the British soldiers wounded in the attack would later die from their injuries, the only other British Forces' deaths were due to disease. The Emperor committed suicide and the force withdrew.