Original Mahdist War British Khedive’s Sudan Medal of 1897 with Hafir Clasp and period engraved NO 3703 PTE J. BROWN. 1. N. STAFF. R. The medal also comes with eight pages of service record extracts and medal rolls (copies) pertaining to the recipient.
John Brown was born about 1873 in Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, England. A shoemaker by trade he was serving in the Militai with the 3rd North Staffordshire Regiment when he enlisted into the regular Army on 17/5/1892. Posted to the 2nd Battalion N. Staff Regt, he was transferred to the 1st Battalion on 20/3/1894 to serve with them in Malta including two weeks in the cells.
He served on Malta from 20/3/1894 – 4/10/1895.
Egypt from 5/10/1895 – 11/10/1897 and took part in the Dongola Campaign 1896. The 1st Battalion North Staffordshire Regiment was the only British Infantry Battalion to be awrded the Battle Honour HAFIR for the campaign. He was awrded the Queens Sudan Medal and the Khedives Sudan Medal with clasp HAFIR (588 awarded to the battalion).
He continued to serve in India 12/10/1897 – 3/11/1903. Returning to England he transferred to the Army Reserve on 27/9/1904.
An interesting soldier he would be regularyly awarded a good conduct badge and loose it shortly after. It would appear that he attempted to rejoin for the Great War enlisting on 13/4/1915 in Stoke on Trent declaring that he had no previous military service. He was discharged the next month.
The Khedive's Sudan Medal was a campaign medal awarded by the Khedivate of Egypt to both Egyptian and British forces for service during the reconquest of the Sudan, the final part of the Mahdist War. Established 12 February 1897 by Khedive Abbas Hilmi Pasha, this medal was initially to commemorate the reconquest of the Dongola province in 1896. It was subsequently authorized for later campaigns and actions until 1908. The medal was awarded with fifteen different clasps.
