Siege of Khartoum currency to the post of Governor-general in January 1884 and arrived at Khartoum on 18 February 1884, less than one month prior to the siege. Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah, self-proclaimed Mahdi, engaged in an 18-year Mahdist War (1881–99) against the British Empire (Khedivate of Egypt), the Ethiopian Empire, the Congo Free State, and the Kingdom of Italy. In a series of telegrams in early March, 1884, Gordon informed the British government that the Mahdi were closing the roads, cutting off supplies and severing telegraph communications. As the fighting drew closer to the city walls, and the blockade tightened, the siege
1885 Antrim by-election in the new seat of Mid Antrim where he beat Sinclair's by-election helper Thomas Dickson. Sinclair did however return to the House of Commons at the 1886 general election as Liberal Unionist Party member for Falkirk Burghs in the central Scottish Lowlands. 1885 Antrim by-election The Antrim by-election, 1885 was a by-election held on Thursday 21 May 1885 for the British House of Commons constituency of Antrim in present-day Northern Ireland. The by-election was caused by the death, at the age of only 43, of the sitting Conservativel MP James Chaine on 4 May 1885. Chaine had been one of