The Alexandria Riots, Egypt, Sunday, 11 June 1882

Ruins of Grand Square during burning of Alexandria

• Name - 6 British citizens (see below)
• Occupation - Various (Businessmen, Sailors )
• Assassins - Mob led by Egyptian Arabi army
• Assassination Method - Mostly stabbed, bludgeoned and mutilated
• Place of Death - Alexandria, Egypt

Killed

• Robert James Dobson (1862-1882) Cotton Trader
• Reginald John Richardson (1855-1882) Cotton Trader
• Dr Herbert P. Ribton (d.1882) Civil Engineer
• James Pibworth (1850-1882) Chief Engineer of H.M.S. Superb,
• 2 seamen of H.M.S. Helicon

J. Pibworth, Chief Engineer, HMS Superb.

(6 British in total murdered) 

Injured

Sir Charles Cookson (1829-1906) British Consul

Sir Charles Cookson, British Consul

Crises in Egypt

We have also this week, to publish, with feelings of regret and sympathy, the portraits of two young Englishmen who were among the murdered victims of mob fury at Alexandria on that fatal Sunday afternoon. They were both from Manchester, and engaged in commercial business; they were in joint charge of a stock of cotton goods, worth about £4000, stored in the Manchester House, Place des, Consuls, at Alexandria. Mr Robert James Dobson, who was but twenty years of age, was the son of Mr Robert Dobson, of Manchester, and brother to Mr John R. Dobson, of the Gresham Shipping House, Bloom-street, in that city. Mr Reginald John Richardson, who was seven or eight years older, was acting for Mr Dobson, senior, in his business at Alexandria, and was assisted by the younger gentleman. It appears that they were personally acquainted with some members of the staff of the Eastern Telegraph Company at Alexandria. During the riots on the Marina, an attempt was made by the telegraph officials to secure the shore end of the submarine cable in the harbour from being destroyed or damaged by the mob. This drew upon them a murderous attack; and Mr Richardson and Mr Dobson, seeing their friends in danger, gallantly interposed to aid in their defence. They were unhappily struck down, and either killed on the spot or so much injured by savage blows and wounds as to die shortly afterwards in the hospital. The other Englishmen killed were Dr H. Ribton, Mr Pibworth, chief engineer of H.M.S. Superb, and two seamen of H.M.S. Helicon; while Mr Cookson, the British Consul-General, was severely beaten. Several of the other European victims of this massacre, being Maltese, were British subjects; and our Government will demand full satisfaction. Germans, Italians, Greeks, and one American were killed in the affray, which cost above fifty lives of foreigners, and as many of the natives. The sketch on our front page was drawn by an eyewitness in the Rue des Soeurs.

Rioters attack Europeans, Alexandria

Source: The Illustrated London News, July 1, 1882, p.6

The War in Egypt: Destruction of Alexandria

We have now to deplore a terrible event, one that, next to that of May 24, 1871, in Paris, seems the most terrible in the history of our times. One of the greatest commercial cities of the Levant, half European, the trading mart and residence of mercantile men of the Western nations, has perished in an outbreak of wild passions, occasioned by a desperate situation at the beginning of fierce and unsparing warfare. It is in human nature that such acts of criminal madness should be possible; and they have sometimes been perpetrated by races which boast of a high civilisation. The wisdom and beneficent power of enlightened statesmanship in Christendom ought to be exercised with a view to prevent their occurrence. In the present instance, though an irremediable injury has been inflicted, not alone upon Egypt, but upon immense interests shared by the leading nations of the world, and upon the common interest of humanity, a lesson may hereafter be drawn from so vast a piece of mischief. Our connected record last week of the proceedings at Alexandria was necessarily written on Wednesday evening, and stopped at the incidents of a flag of truce being displayed at noon that day, and of negotiations with the British Admiral being ostensibly invited by the Egyptian officers presumed to be acting on behalf of Arabi Pasha, the Minister of War and the chief of the military faction. We had then no telegraphic news later than half-past one in the afternoon, and we hoped that a suspension of hostilities was arranged, and that Arabi Pasha would surrender the city, as well as the forts already disarmed and almost demolished by the naval bombardment. But Thursday morning brought the publication of the dreadful news of atrocities consequent upon the defeat of the Egyptian garrison in the forts, and accompanying the forced retirement of Arabi Pasha's troops, which were half disbanded, extremely demoralised, and apparently disposed to join the town rabble and the Bedouin robbers lurking around in committing every kind of licentious and ferocious outrage. What the depraved rabble of that city and of the neighbouring Arab suburbs were capable of doing, whenever the restraining presence of a disciplined military force should be removed, had been exemplified in the riot and massacre of Sunday, June 11; and it will be remembered how, upon that occasion, while the worthless city police or municipal guard, during two hours of unchecked outrage, robbery and murder, had rather aided than opposed the malefactors, they were promptly dispersed when the regular Egyptian soldiery came to the scene of disorder. This was vividly illustrated by the Sketches of an eyewitness, published in our Journal on the 1st inst., and by his personal testimony, in the accompanying letter, that "both officers and soldiers behaved well," in clearing the streets and keeping them afterwards; and that "the military are indignant at the excesses committed by the mob." It is, unhappily, too well established by many historical instances, that a soldiery, who form the trustworthy guard of social order while retained in the bond of regimental discipline, may, by sudden disbandment, at an exciting moment of warfare, be converted into its direst foes; and this seems to have taken place with a certain portion of the Egyptian army on Wednesday week. There are, it is known, different races, negroes of Sudan, Arabs of various tribes, and Fellaheen or native Egyptians, composing the regular forces then under the command of Arabi Pasha; and it is probable that when he abandoned the city, under covert of a deceitful flag of truce, he could not or would not take with him those regiments upon whose adherence he might not rely. It is certain that he left thousands of soldiers behind, without their commanders, in a state of utter demoralisation, and that they instantly joined in the orgies of plunder and slaughter renewed by the local rabble, continued during two hours after the withdrawal of the troops, and finished by setting fire to the European quarter of the city, which has thus been entirely destroyed. There had been good order in Alexandria, though great panic was felt by all classes, during a whole month previous to the bombardment of Tuesday week, as the actual Ministry, to which Arabi Pasha belonged, then had a regular force under strict command to repress every motion of popular disturbance. The expulsion or the voluntary removal of that force—if not driven away by the bombardment, then treacherously withdrawn to permit the disaster that ensued—appears to have been the immediate cause of the inconceivable havoc on Wednesday evening.

Source: The Illustrated London News, No.2255—Vol. LXXXI, Saturday, July 22, 1882, p.81

Arabi Pasha

This personage, with whom, as the ambitious representative of a powerful native faction in Egypt, Great Britain is now at war, suddenly emerged from obscurity in September last. He then appeared at the head of a military and popular revolt, compelling the Prince Khedive, Tewfik Pasha, to dismiss his former Ministry, and to convene a sort of Parliament, called the Assembly of Notables, which met about the beginning of the present year. Ahmed Arabi Bey, to speak of him by the rank and style he then held, was simply a Colonel in the Army, but his character and position were respectable; he has, indeed, never been accused of personal or official dishonesty, and, however misguided in his conduct as an Egyptian politician, seems to have enjoyed the esteem of his fellow-countrymen. He was born at or near the important town of Damanhour, thirty or forty miles from Alexandria, and belongs to the native Egyptian race, that which constitutes the bulk of the peasant population, or Fellaheen; his name, more properly written "Ourabi," has nothing to do with an Arab lineage. He appears to have received a purely Musselman education, and to have little knowledge of Europe, understanding no foreign language; but he is a devout and zealous professor of the religion of Islam, and inherits from his ancestors the title of " Syed," which implies a certain claim to orthodox consideration. The affair of Sept. 8, much resembling a pronunciamento of the type familiar in Spanish history under Queen Isabella II., resulted in the overthrow of Riaz Pasha's Administration, which was unpopular because it was supposed to be too deferential to certain foreign interests. Sherif Pasha, who was thereupon appointed Prime Minister, pledged the Khedive to establish a Parliamentary Government. A manifesto was issued by "the National Party," as Arabi and his supporters call themselves, on Dec. 18, containing an exposition of their views and purposes. They profess loyalty to the Sultan, both as Imperial Suzerain and as Caliph of the Mussulman community, but will never suffer Egypt to be reduced to a Turkish Pashalic, and they claim the guarantee of England and of Europe for the administrative independence of Egypt. They also profess loyalty to the Khedive, but will not acquiesce in a despotic rule, and insist upon his promise to govern by the advice of a Representative Assembly. They accept the obligation of the Egyptian public debt, as a matter of national honour, although it was incurred for the private ends of a selfish and dishonest ruler, the late Khedive Ismail Pasha, without the consent of the nation. The Financial Control, for the security of the foreign bondholders, is recognised as a temporary necessity, but the Egyptians hope gradually to redeem their country from its subjection to the European creditors and to enjoy the management of their own affairs. They complain of the intrusion of foreigners (mostly Frenchmen) into 1345 Government offices, with an aggregate of salaries amounting to not less than £370,000 a year. The exemption of European residents in Egypt from certain taxes, and from the ordinary jurisdiction of the Egyptian Civil Courts, is also mentioned as a grievance. The Army, in the opinion of Arabi, should be raised to its full complement of 18,000 men, as allowed by the firman of the Porte in 1841, the extended dominion in the Soudan being taken into consideration. Finally, the National Party declares its sincere regard for the principles of religious liberty, and the civil and legal equality of Mussulman, Coptic Christian, Jewish and other native Egyptians. Such principles are approved by the Sheikhs of the Azhar, the great Mussulman University at Cairo. At the beginning of the present year the Khedive and Sherif Pasha, according to promise, called together the Assembly of Notables—that is to say, of "Omde," elected for each district by the village mayors, "sheikh-el-beled," who are men of wealth holding a hereditary municipal office. Arabi was then appointed Under-Secretary of State for the War Department and was raised to the rank of Pasha. The Assembly of Notables wanted to vote the Budget. It was refused by the Khedive's Government, on account of the Financial Controllers. Hence the Egyptian Crisis of this day; but Arabi Pasha's insubordinate behaviour has been infamous, from first to last. He is not the less a rebel and a traitor, though both the Khedive and the Sultan condoned his offences. It was most needful that, in May last, he should be summarily sent into exile; but he refused to go; and now the British Fleet and Army will enforce the decree for his expulsion

Source: The Illustrated London News, No.2255—Vol. LXXXI, Saturday, July 22, 1882, p.81

Riots at Alexandria

It is, according to the Times correspondent and others, not believed that Arabi Pasha gave any orders to pillage and burn the city. He appears to have simply marched out, with a portion of the Egyptian army, just about the time when the ostensible negotiations for peace, conducted by Toulba Pasha, Governor of Alexandria, on board the Khedive's yacht Mahroussa, with Flag-Lieutenant Lambton, sent by the British Admiral, were broken off; the Bittern, with that officer, returning to the Admiral's flag-ship at half-past three o'clock. As the negotiations were abortive, Toulba Pasha alleging that lie must refer to the Khedive, at Hamleh, for instructions concerning the proposed terms of surrender, the bombardment was to have been renewed; but one shot only was fired, at four o'clock. By that time, it is now ascertained, the troops still under command of Arabi Paslia had departed, and the disbanded soldiery who remained in Alexandria had begun the shameful work of sacking and firing the European quarter. It is thus described by Mr. Goussio, manager of the Anglo-Egyptian Bank, who likewise tells us of the preceding flight of the townspeople; how, as he says "the whole night long, the native population had poured, screaming with terror, into the interior," and on the Wednesday their flight was continued in still greater numbers. "In the afternoon the exodus from the town had become general. At three o'clock the soldiers gave the signal for pillaging. As on June 11, they begun by opening the doors of the stores and dividing the merchandise which they found. Soldiers, under the direction of the officers and superior officers, divided the booty in a disgraceful fashion; but at the same time having its comical side. Pieces of calico were cut into pieces and handed round; while albums, watches, and fancy goods were carried off and presently pulled to pieces, after having been for a few moments in the hands of men who did not understand their use. The officers frequently carried two or more guns, so as to leave free hands to the soldiers who were carrying off the booty. A Colonel, mounted on a horse, had a pair of new shoes ruder his arm; another threw down and broke into a thousand pieces a clock which he found too heavy to carry. In fact, the property destroyed was of greater value than that which was actually carried away. As soon as a shop was empty, the paper and all the debris that could be Hastily collected were thrown into it; then small explosive pellets were added, and in a moment the whole vas in a blaze. At five o'clock the Egyptian Heroes, loaded with booty instead of laurels, retreated in the greatest disorder. Since two in the afternoon the Bowabs, or house porters, had received the mot d'ordre to desert the houses which they guarded. By six all the European quarter was in flames, and the town presented the appearance of one huge furnace." It is stated that soldiers were seen to pile heaps of bedding, saturated with petroleum, at the doors and windows of houses, and to set fire to these; the French Consulate, in the Grand Square, was fired by it soldier at the very first. The town rabble, bent on repeating their exploits of June 11, were joined by the released inmates of the criminal prisons or hulks, including those whom the Governor of Alexandria had arrested for their doings on that memorable Sunday. The dwellings and shops of native townsfolk were not spared. Predatory bands of savage Bedouins, who had been hanging about outside the city, expecting a chance of plunder in the accidents of war, poured quickly into Alexandria to kill and to rob indiscriminately, and hastened away, laden with spoil, at nightfall, but next day sacked the houses of the English merchants and others at Ramleh, four miles distant, which had been left unoccupied. The loss of property in Alexandria, by wanton destruction not less than by robbery, will be reckoned at several millions sterling. The number of people massacred has not been computed at less than five or six hundred. In the buildings of the Anglo-Egyptian Bank, the Credit Lyonnais, and the Ottoman Bank, a, few score Europeans, among them some women, prepared to defend their lives, and drove off a crowd of assailants. At four o'clock on Thursday morning, when the streets were comparatively empty, they walked down to the Marina, took the boats lying there, and rowed out into the New Harbour, where they were picked up by H.M.S. Helicon, to the number of one hundred or more. About eighty Germans, including the patients of the German Hospital, outside the city, with the Deaconesses or Protestant Sisters of Clarity there, sought refuge on board the German gun-boat Habicht. The French Catholic Sisters, also, with their clergy and the medical officers, had done all they could to relieve the wounded and distressed of every nation, amidst the frightful scenes of murderous conflict.

Source: The Illustrated London News, No.2255—Vol. LXXXI, Saturday, July 22, 1882, p.81

 A City in Ruins

British soldiers executing inhabitant of Alexandria

Our preceding descriptions and Illustrations of Alexandria, in the last four Numbers of this Journal, have supplied a general acquaintance with the local situation of that city and of its harbour, and of the forts and batteries, extending more than seven miles along the seashore, by which it was defended from foreign attack. The Frank, or European Quarter, including the Grand Square, formerly named the Place Mahomed Ali, which is now reduced to heaps of ruins, occupied the eastern part of the city, on the shore of the so-called New Port, which was not the actual port of commerce, being a mere shallow bay full of sandbanks. The Old Port, or Inner Harbour, with the Quays, the Arsenal, and the Mole and Landing Pier, lies on the west side of an isthmus, artificially formed many ages past, connecting the islet of Pharos, on which are the Palace of Ras-el-tin, several Forts, and the Lighthouse, with the mainland shore behind. We take this opportunity of commending Messrs. Letts, Son, and Co. for their timely publication of an excellent Plan of Alexandria, on the scale of three inches to the mile, with the depths of water in the harbour channels. Another Plan, extending so far westward as the Marabout island and fort, is published by Mr James Wyld, and will be found even more serviceable in studying accounts of the late bombardment. Either will show the point which must here be considered; namely, that some of the shells thrown by several of our larger ironclads at the Ras-el-tin and other Forts were likely, if they missed their aim and passed on about two miles farther in the same direction, to fall into the midst of the city. In spite of the utmost care and skill exercised by the officers and gunners of the naval squadron, it is now proved by ample evidence that this actually happened; one of the largest shells from a British ship of war struck the English church at the farther side of the Grand Square; and the Europeans still left in Alexandria testify that many shells fell in the streets and among the houses in different quarters. In the narrow lanes and alleys of the old native town, one of which is shown among our Artist's Sketches, the falling of a shell must have been so destructive and terrifying to the poor inhabitants that we can readily understand the panic excited among the townspeople on Tuesday week. They fled front their homes is terror, many thousands of families all that day thronging the roads to the city gates, with crying lamentations, escaping into the country, destitute of all but the little; they could carry with them. At half-past five, when the bombardment ceased, forlorn groups of weeping women and angry men, with children beside them, were seen to greet each other with joyful thanksgiving for relief from the instant danger. Others were deluded by a false rumour that the forts had repelled the attack, and had sunk two or more of the British ships; but there is no doubt that the whole native population, except the soldiery, was afflicted with agonies of fear, and that all who could leave the city did so, dreading the worst fate of the defenceless victims of war. It was impossible to undeceive them, as there was no civil government, the Khedive having shut himself up at Ramleh, and there was no English or foreign official onshore to whom the Admiral might have sent a reassuring message. The Tuesday night was endured in painful anxiety, and next morning the terror of the townspeople was renewed by the sound of our guns firing a few shots at the outer forts not yet subdued, and by symptoms of all intended attack on the forts behind the city, from the ships which had now entered the inner harbour. The flight of panic-stricken families throughout Wednesday forenoon though it is certain that there was no real chance of their being molested by the British forces on sea or shore, proves the continuance and aggravation of their distress. Such was the condition of Alexandria, by all the accounts from persons remaining in the city, at the hour when Arabi Pasha resolved upon his military retreat. The horrible doings of the afternoon, which are to be next related, were consequent upon the state of utter confusion, dismay, and wild excitement pre¬vailing in the motley population.

Funeral of a marine at the RC church, Alexandria.

Source: The Illustrated London News, No.2255—Vol. LXXXI, Saturday, July 22, 1882, p.81

Compensation claim

MRS HERBERT P. RIBTON'S CASE.

MRS. RIBTON is the widow of Herbert P. Ribton, C.E., University of Dublin, a British subject, who was savagely murdered at Alexandria, in the massacre of Sunday, the 11th June, 1882.

By his death Mrs. Ribton and her daughter, who is now seventeen years of age, have been left totally unprovided for.

Mr Ribton was a native of the City of Dublin, a graduate of T.C.D., [Trinity College, Dublin] a Civil Engineer by profession, and son of the late Dr George Ribton, a well-known member of the medical profession in Dublin.

At the time of his death Mr. Ribton was one of the Civil Engineers attached to the "Tribunali Misti" at Alexandria.

On Sunday, the 11th June 1882, Mr Ribton, accompanied by his daughter and three friends, left home to visit the British Fleet then in the Harbour, and on his return was brutally murdered by the Arab Mob and Soldiers; about 300 other Europeans fell in the same massacre.

Mr Ribton's daughter was frightfully beaten. She was seized by an Arab Soldier who carried her off to the Arab quarter. Here she was miraculously rescued by a friendly Arab Sheik, who kept her till nightfall when he sent her home disguised as an Arab. She was, however, dreadfully bruised, and is still in extremely delicate health.

After remaining in terror of their lives for four days, on the Friday following, Mrs Ribton and her daughter were enabled to effect their escape and to take refuge on board the vessel which was hired by the British Government for the reception of the refugees.

Everything that Mrs. Ribton and her daughter possessed in the world, save the clothes in which they fled, was left behind in Alexandria, and they are now absolutely destitute.

Mrs Ribton presented a petition to Her Majesty's Government for compensation for the murder of her husband and has been informed by Earl Granville, in reply, that her claim must be investigated by an International Commission in Egypt, which Commission has since been appointed, and is expected to sit shortly. * Mrs Ribton is advised that, in order to establish her claim, it is absolutely necessary for her daughter and herself to go to Alexandria; but she has no means to pay their passage there or to support herself and her daughter pending the investigation.

* Since this paper was printed, Mrs Ribton has lost a valuable friend by death – of Miss L'Estrange

* There is now no necessity for Mrs Ribton to go to Egypt.