Abyssinia (battle honour) Abyssinia (battle honour) Abyssinia is a battle honour awarded to units of the British Indian Army and the British Army which participated in the 1868 campaign to free Europeans held hostage in Abyssinia (now known as Ethiopia) by Emperor Tewodros II (known at that time to the British as Theodore). The success of the expedition led to the award of this honour to units of the British Indian Army which had participated in the campaign. The units belonged, with the exception of the Madras Sappers, to the Bengal and Bombay Presidency Armies. A diplomatic contretemps by the British Foreign Office
SS Abyssinia All five of the new Cunarders on this route were quickly rendered out of date by White Star's revolutionary "Oceanic" of 1871. For example, "Abyssinia" and her sister burned 90 tons of coal per day as compared to 58 tons for "Oceanic". While Inman and other rivals quickly installed compound machinery and modified passenger quarters to match White Star's new fleet, Cunard did not. Finally, in 1879 the privately owned Cunard line was reorganised as a public stock corporation to raise the capital needed to rebuild the fleet. On the other hand, "Abyssinia's" near sister, "Parthia" did utilise compound machinery.