William Hicks (1830-5 November 1883) was a Colonel of the British Army during the Sepoy Mutiny, Abyssinian expedition, and the Mahdist War.
Biography[]
William Hicks was born in 1830, and he served in the British Army in India during the Sepoy Mutiny, being mentioned in dispatches in 1859. He became a captain in 1861 and served in the expedition to Ethiopia in 1868, again being mentioned in dispatches and promoted to major. He retired with the honorary rank of colonel in 1880, and he entered the service of the Khedivate of Egypt at the close of the Anglo-Egyptian War of 1882. In 1883, Hicks was sent to Khartoum, Sudan to served as chief of staff of the Egyptian Army, and he was sent to crush the Mahdist uprising. Sent to Kordofan, he captured El Obeid in January 1883. However, that November, his expedition was ambushed and massacred at the Battle of Shaykan, and Hicks was impaled with a spear and beheaded.
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