Sold with related research which confirms that the published Abu Klea roll has an entry which has been mixed up with another family member, 505 Private Gansden, also of the 1st Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment, who died at Korti on 19.1.1885, and who was not entitled to the Abu Klea clasp. Both men are listed under the surname Gausden, the recipient of the above Medal being the correct Abu Klea man (P.R.O. WO 100/65 refers).

Private J. Gansden (a.k.a. Gausden) was one of just 20 members of the 1st Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment who were hand-picked to accompany the Steamers Talahawiya and Bordein on their journey up the Nile to attempt the rescue of Gordon at Khartoum, the whole under the command of Captain L.J. Trafford. Gansden was allocated to the latter vessel, in which two of his comrades were to win the D.C.M.:
High Drama on the Nile

At 8.00 a.m. on 24.1.1885 two vermin infested Nile Steamers, the Bordein and the Talahawiya, chugged off from Abu Kru in the direction of the Sixth Cataract and Khartoum, 100 miles to the South, in a last bid to pluck General Gordon to safety. Aboard the former Steamer was the Officer on whom the command of the Desert Column had devolved following the action at Abu Klea, Colonel Sir Charles Wilson, R.E. Accompanying Wilson aboard the Bordein were his Batman and his Native Interpreter, Captain F.R. Gascoigne of the Blues, a Sergeant, a Lance-Corporal and eight men belonging to the 1st Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment, including, as stated, Private Gausden, 110 Soudanese soldiers and a hotch-potch of Soudanese, Egyptians, Greeks and Albanians making up the crew, an assortment of Bashi-Bazooks, the odd Turk, a Kurd and a few of their women and offspring. Aboard the Talahawiya were Captain L.J. Trafford, commanding 'C' Company, 1st Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment, Lieutenant the Hon. E. Stuart-Wortley and his Batman, a Royal Navy Articifer, a Signaller, and 80 Soudanese troops, a Corporal and nine more Royal Sussex men.

All the Royal Sussex men had been hand-picked from 'C' Company by Trafford for their 'steadiness and marksmanship', and it was appreciated that any measure of success attending the operation would depend on them in no small way. Furthermore, the wishes of General Wolseley, commanding the Relief Expedition from Korti, were made manifest in the issuing of specific articles of uniform to this handful of men - 'Wolseley had stipulated that the British troops on arrival at Khartoum were to wear their red coats, for it was in this highly unsuitable garb that the Empire had been won and held and he believed the psychological effect on the Mahdists might be decisive. Unfortunately the red coats of the Sussex had been left somewhere along the way and they had to borrow some red jerseys from the Guards, many of which would have completely enveloped the wearers had they ever worn them ...'

Shadowed from the outset by Fiki (Holy Man) Mustafa's Cavalry, the Steamers progressed upstream, stopping occasionally to break up Sakiehs (water wheels) for fuel. On the 25th, at the Sixth Cataract, the Bordein struck a rock under the heavily defended Heights of Shabluka Gorge. Luckily the Mahdists showed no fight and the Bordein was dislodged the next day only to run aground on a sandbank. Refloated, the Bordein and Talahawiya pressed on. On the 26th the dreaded news of Khartoum's fall was shouted from the bank. At first Wilson refused to believe it and ordered the Steamers to hove to for a wood gathering foray, instructing his Officers and the Royal Sussex men to make free use of the Kurbash. On the morning of the 28th they came within sight of their objective and under a heavy fire from the village of Halfiyel on Tuti Island opposite Khartoum. Replying with the Steamers' brass nine pounders and a deadly fire from the Martini-Henry's of the Royal Sussex men, the Officers scanned the Khartoum roof tops with their binoculars in vain for sight of the Egyptian Flag over Gordon's Palace, and with enemy fire coming in thick and fast from Omdurman Fort, Tuti and Khartoum, and not seeing a shot fired in support of the Steamers, Wilson reluctantly accepted Gordon's fate and the fall of Khartoum.

Now completely out on a limb, Wilson was faced with the possible defection of his Native Troops, Bashi-Bazooks and most critically the Steamers' crews. Not least among these potential turncoats was the Native Skipper of the Bordein, who had little to lose by throwing in his lot with the Mahdists since his family and property were in their hands at Khartoum. By mid-afternoon, however, the Steamers had withdrawn outside the range of the Mahdist Artillery, and Wilson through his resilient interpreter, Mohamed Ibrahim, offered to buy the crews' loyalty with generous bonuses on condition of safe arrival at Abu Kru. Next day the Talahawiya was holed on a rock and sank, leaving just enough time for those on board to transfer with stores to Bordein.

Bordein, by duping a Mahdist Lieutenant on the bank, was permitted to negotiate the dangers of the Sixth Cataract on 30 January and passed on without difficulty until the 31st, when, approaching Fiki Mustafa's Battery at Wad Habeshi, she was holed by a rock and started to sink, though the crew managed to lay her on a sandbank adjacent to Mernat Island:

'Fortunately they did not come under fire and were able to evacuate the ship without much loss of equipment or stores except for some of the Officers' kit which was looted by the Native Troops. Wilson recounts a curious incident which occurred when the ship struck. One of the soldiers, a Shilluk, seized a small child and threw it overboard. It is not clear why he did this or if the child was drowned but Wilson theorised that the Shilluk may have been attempting to propitiate some river god. The Sussex men were unimpressed by any possible religious significance and the savage was at once made a prisoner and tightly bound.'

Choosing to fortify Mernat Island and send for help 40 miles downstream at Abu Kru, Wilson despatched Stuart-Wortley at a quarter to seven in the evening in a rowing boat with four British soldiers, two of them apparently Sussex men, and eight natives. On the Island the situation was serious with the ever present threat of attack by Fiki Mustafa's following and desertions from the native ranks which remained closely watched by 'the unflappable Sussex men'. Stuart-Wortley's party arrived at Abu Kru in the early hours with the first official news of Gordon's murder. A relief Steamer, the Safiya, was hurriedly despatched under Lord Charles Beresford, R.N., to rescue Wilson's force from Mernat but against the current took four times as long as Stuart-Wortley's rowing boat to cover the distance. She came under a heavy fire and was forced to vigorously defend herself for several hours whilst vital repairs were made to the holed boiler. On 3 February, Wilson's lookouts reported the Safiya's approach and later the same day the Royal Sussex men participated in the embarkation of the entire force under a heavy fire from Fiki Mustafa's men, the whole perilous adventure being concluded on the evening of the 4th with their return to the comparative safety of Abu Kru.

Reference: A Good Dusting, The Sudan Campaigns 1883-1899, Henry Keown-Boyd, 1986.