When Lord Kitchener led the 1895 invasion in Egypt, crushing Mahdist resistance and asserting British dominance were the primary goals. However avenging the death of General George Gordon, who was killed in the Battle of Khartoum ten years earlier was also on Kitchener's agenda.
Muhammad Ahmad bin Abdullah bin Fahal, AKA The Mahdi, had led the victory against the British at the siege of Khartoum in 1885. The exact circumstances of Gordon's death are unclear due to a lack of reliable sources, the one eye witness account has Gordon gunned down near a gateway, then another reports his decapitation and from there, it depends on who's version you subscribe to. One theory is that the Mahdi had the bonce hung between two trees for children to use as target practice. Another is that the men who dismembered the corpse were not acting on the mahdis orders as in 1966 "Khartoum" where Hollywood has black-faced Laurence Olivier say "I forbade it". In any case, Plans for revenge were somewhat dashed as the Mahdi had died a few years before Kitchener's arrival, and his remains were held in a tomb by devoted followers. After the imperial victory at Omdurman, thanks in part to the all-new Maxim gun, Lord Kitchener is said to have ordered the tomb to be desecrated and though the text describing this event is not known to me yet the theory is that the Mahdi's skull was gruesomely exhumed and according to Winston Churchill, stored in a kerosene can for safekeeping. The head was sent to Britain, and the body was reportedly thrown in the Nile, leaving a disturbing question- where is it now?
The whereabouts of the stolen head becomes uncertain. Some suggest Kitchener used the grim trophy as an ink pot or drinking cup others suggest it was offered to Victoria as a gift. Recent theories suggest that the head was repatriated and finally laid to rest.
