Kulah Khud, Persian style helmet, 1898 (c)

This handsome iron and brass helmet was recovered from the Omdurman battlefield. It would have been worn by a Dervish warrior. Situated just north of Khartoum, the battle of 2 September 1898 marked the culmination of Major-General Sir Horatio Herbert (later Field Marshal, 1st Earl) Kitchener's re-conquest of the Sudan. Kitchener commanded a force of 8,000 British regulars and a mixed force of 17,000 Sudanese and Egyptian soldiers. Armed with modern rifles, Maxim guns and artillery they easily defeated the 50,000 strong Dervish army of Abdullahi ibn Muhammed (The Khalifa). Kitchener's force lost 48 men with 382 wounded as opposed to the 10,000 dead and 13,000 wounded of the Dervishes.