The Big Read: Museum treasures reveal the truth at last on the loot of Scotland’s Empire

We know what happened next because the General’s last stand in Khartoum against Muhammad Ahmad al-Mahdi has become one of the most famous episodes in British military history.

Gordon had originally been sent to Sudan to organise the evacuation of British forces, but instead he decided to stay and defend the city.

The Mahdi at one point offered Gordon a chance to escape. “Do not destroy yourselves,” he said, “go back to your country.” But Gordon would not give up and ignored the offer.

The Mahdi then made his move on January 26, 1885, and it did not take long. His forces overwhelmed the palace guard and a group of them rushed to the stairs that led to Gordon’s quarters.

Gordon was standing at the top. In his right hand was a revolver, his left hand rested on his sword, but he made no move to defend himself.

With a shout of “your time has come”, the leader of the rebels flung his spear at Gordon’s breast. The others then ran up the stairs and finished the job. According to custom, Gordon’s head was cut off and taken to the Mahdi.

Then the looting began. The people of the town were stripped of their belongings and everything of value was carried off to the Mahdi’s treasury.

Any citizens found trying to hide their wealth were immediately put to death, although the Mahdi’s forces were only doing what every conquering force, including the British, has done as long as wars have been recorded.

The British government and its armies assumed property taken in war belonged to the British crown by right. Often, the loot was divided among the men according to rank and some of it, famously and controversially, ended up in British museums.

The story of General Gordon has always been right at the heart of the issue.

Some 25 years before Khartoum, Gordon was part of the British force that occupied Peking and sacked the summer palace. It is estimated that some 1.5 million items were taken.

The officer in charge said: “There was not a room I saw in which half the things had not been taken away or broken in pieces.” That officer was the 8th Earl of Elgin, whose name will be familiar.

His father was the man who removed the sculptures from Greece that came to be known as the Elgin Marbles.

Remnants of the legendary Gordon story have also ended up in Scotland, and form part of a new exhibition at the National War Museum in Edinburgh.

They highlight the controversial and complicated nature of the objects that were taken, purchased, or otherwise collected by military personnel across the British Empire, and the exhibition seeks to examine honestly how the objects were collected and how they came to be in British museums.

There are two items in the exhibition connected to General Gordon. One of them is a fragment of stone which is said to have come from the steps on which Gordon was killed.

The stone was taken as a memento by Major-General Rudolf von Slatin after the British recapture of Khartoum, mounted in silver and inscribed with the date of Gordon’s death: January 26, 1885.

It was then presented to Queen Victoria in 1899.

Interestingly, Victoria had also been presented with one of the most famous prizes looted from the Summer Palace in China: a little Pekingese dog that was the first of its breed to come to Britain and was named, with no apparent shame, “Looty”.

The other object connected to Gordon in the new Edinburgh exhibition is a silver box commemorating his death.

The inscription on the lid reads: “The wood lining of this box is made from part of a shutter taken from a window on the balcony of the governor’s place at Khartoum on the steps of which General Gordon was murdered.”

The box was presented to the Seaforth Highlanders by Captain AA Spottiswoode in 1897 for use in the officers’ mess and is now in the regimental museum collections.

It is the use in the inscription of that word “taken” that highlights the problematic and complicated nature of objects brought back from the colonial conflicts, and the staff at the war museum in Edinburgh say they wanted to tackle it honestly.

The new exhibition, Legacies Of Empire, draws on the findings of a major research project, Baggage And Belonging, which is shedding new light on museum collections arising from British military campaigns in Africa and India between 1750 and 1900.

The staff behind the project say their aim is to address the complicated and controversial nature of the objects in British collections with the most up-to-date information.

Dr Stuart Allan, co-investigator on the project and keeper of Scottish history and archaeology at National Museums Scotland, said he was acutely aware of the conversations and debates taking place around colonial collections.

“This exhibition and the wider research project are, we believe, useful contributions to that discussion,” he said.

“We are committed to ensuring that the presentation of colonial and imperial histories and their legacies is based in rigorous and up-to-date knowledge.”

The question facing every museum, of course, is whether any of the objects should be returned or repatriated in some way. Recently, the Rijksmuseum and Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam said they supported the conclusion of a report that a system should be established for the return of objects taken by Dutch colonialists.

It could include the 70-carat diamond that belonged to the Sultan of Banjarmasin and was sent to the Netherlands after his land came under Dutch control at the end of the 19th century.

The diamond is currently on display in the Rijksmuseum.

National Museums Scotland’s position on the question is that it is specifically not defending the means by which many of the colonial objects were acquired, simply presenting factually the ways in which they ended up in museums. Dr Chris Breward, director of National Museums Scotland, said: “The development of the collection began in the 18th century and many of the objects collected over the following 200 years reflect imperial and colonial histories. Like many museums, the way that we display and interpret those collections has also historically been shaped by imperial and colonial thinking.

“National Museums Scotland is committed to presenting the colonial and imperial histories of the collections both transparently and in line with rigorous and up-to-date research.

“Objects taken in earlier colonial wars are today the subject of discussions reflecting the different perspectives of a diverse society, and we are a willing and active participant in these discussions.

“These include arguments for wider access to international cultural heritage and, in some instances, return of objects to their country of origin. Formal requests of this kind are considered on a case-by-case basis. No such requests are outstanding.”

Prominent among the colonial objects on show in the new exhibition is a collection of beautiful gold ornaments taken from Ghana during the Third Anglo-Asante War from 1873-74.

There is a gold plate with a beaten decoration; there is a remnant of what was probably a chair; and there is a delicate feathered gold plate that was probably worn as a decoration.

Beaten gold ornaments had an important role to play in Asante court regalia.

The ornaments were seized by the British as part of a forced indemnity against the Asante King, Kofi Karikari. The king’s palace was looted and demolished and he was forced to pay the British 50,000 ounces of gold, which was then distributed according to British military customs and regulations.

The British used several systems to process property seized in this way. Its value could be divided as “prize money” for sharing according to rank or it could be seized as “indemnity” in compensation for acts of resistance to British imperial power.

The gold that has ended up in Edinburgh was bought in 1874 by the jeweller Garrard through the army’s prize system and was bought by National Museums Scotland the following year.

Some of the other objects in the collection tell slightly different stories. There is an ornate silver club that belonged to Kunwar Singh, a leader of the Indian Uprising in Bihar in 1857-58.

The club was taken by General Godfrey Pearse, who added a plaque proclaiming it to be spolia opima, which is Latin for rich spoils and a reference to the ancient Roman tradition of the victor taking the arms and armour of an enemy commander as a trophy.

Taking trophies in this way was common practice. In British and other European military cultures, the taking of trophies on the battlefield was considered a right of the victor.

The trophies were taken and kept by individuals, but often became the communal property of regiments and other military organisations. Symbolically powerful objects were frequently set aside and presented to the reigning monarch or the military commander.

The silver club was donated to National Museums Scotland by Pearce’s descendants in 1948.

Another of the most striking objects in the new exhibition is the sword once owned by the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II. The emperor presented the sword to Colonel Sir John Macdonald, who was prominent in the victory of British imperial forces in the Second Anglo-Maratha War in 1803.

The gift was tactical and was made by Shah Allam II to re-establish an alliance with the British following his neutral stance in the conflict.

But the concept of it as a “gift” has to be seen in the context of the British military domination. The sword was bequeathed to National Museums Scotland in 1944 by Macdonald’s descendants.

Some of the other objects on show at the war museum have slightly different stories.

There’s an exquisite collection of early Greek jewellery, for example, which was uncovered by British troops digging trenches in northern Greece during the First World War.

Robert Gaddie, an amateur archaeologist from Edinburgh, excavated the bronze armlets, spiral brooch, and beads at a site called Chauchitza. The jewellery was transferred to National Museums Scotland in 1918. As for the objects connected to General Gordon, they are typical of the kind of material that was often collected by soldiers as a memento of their experiences.

Following important victories, and sometimes defeats, military personnel placed high emotional value on mementos connected to the event, the place or a person, such as Gordon.

The objects were often modified with elaborate commemorative mounts and inscriptions and were preserved through the generations by regiments or military organisations. Many, such as the stone and wood from Khartoum, became symbols of martyrdom, honour or sacrifice.

In the modern age, they are more complicated and controversial. There are some who take the view that any objects acquired through war or violence should be returned.

Glasgow councillor Graham Campbell, who has a special interest in museums, has said that there is no doubt that museums should be giving stuff back.

“But really it’s about the stories,” he said. “If having the artifacts is any use, you’ve got to have a story that tells the truth about where it came from.”

The National War Museum says that is its aim with the new exhibition. It recognises that some of the objects are controversial.

It accepts that one day some, or all of it, may be returned to the places they came from. But in the meantime, the least it can do is tell, truthfully, the stories of blood and violence and domination behind them.

Legacies Of Empire is at the National War Museum in Edinburgh Castle until spring 2022. The museum is closed from Boxing Day due to national coronavirus restrictions. Check www.nms.ac.uk/war for updates prior to visiting.