Siege of Khartoum support of the Mahdi, and cut the Egyptian traffic on the Nile and the telegraph to Cairo. Communications were not entirely cut, as runners could still get through, but the siege had begun and Khartoum could only rely on its own food stores, which could last five or six months. On 16 March an abortive sortie from Khartoum was launched, which led to the death of 200 Egyptian troops as the combined forces besieging Khartoum grew to over 30,000 men. Through the months of April, May, June, and July, Gordon and the garrison dealt with being cut off as food
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