Charles Townshend (British Army officer) known for his theatrical style, and he liked to associate with actors. In 1884, Townshend was part of the relief expedition to rescue the besieged army of General Charles Gordon, better known to the British public as "Chinese Gordon", at Khartoum. As a Royal Marine officer, he strictly speaking should not had been part of an Army expedition, but he wrote to Field Marshal Garnet Wolsely asking if he could go, and his request was granted. The way that Gordon had defied the orders of the government to leave Khartoum, knowing full well that the government could not abandon a
Siege of Khartoum disastrous battles in the years to come, as well as complex international events that would compel further colonial interests throughout Africa, the Anglo-Egyptian forces would steadily regain their control over Sudan. Fourteen years after their great conquest of Khartoum, at the Battle of Umm Diwaykarat, the Sudanese Mahdist rebellion was finally extinguished and the Mahdist War was over. In the immediate aftermath of the Mahdist victory, the joy in the Mahdist camp was contrasted by consternation in Great Britain and Egypt. The British press put the blame of Gordon's death on Gladstone, who was charged with excessive slowness in sending