GENERAL MARCHAND’S DEATH

Taranaki Daily News, 16 January 1934, Page 7

GENERAL MARCHAND’S DEATH

DEFIANCE OF LORD KITCHENER. FASHODA INCIDENT RECALLED. By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Paris, Jan. 14. The death has occurred of Genera! Marchand, famous for his defiance of Lord Kitchener at Fashoda. . General Jean Baptiste Marchand was born at Aix, France, in 1863. He entered the army at the age of 20 and three years later gained his commission. He spent 1888 and 1889 exploring in Africa General Marchand’s defiance of Lord Kitchener at Fashoda has become known as “The Fashoda Affair.” This occurred during the reconquest of the Sudan by Kitchener in that year. On September 7 Kitchener received information that Fashoda was occupied lay a' white force. He made investigations and found the French flag flying and General (then Major) Marchand in possession, although the British Government had recently claimed that the valley of the Nile between the lakes and the southern frontier of Egypt was within the sphere of British influence. Marchand refused to withdraw his troops or to lower his colours. Kitchener thereupon disposed a British force in such a manner as to make him and his force virtually prisoners. On November 5 the French Government announced that it had decided to withdraw General Marchand from Fashoda, and the incident was brought to a close in 1899, when France withdrew from the Nile valley and a new boundary between the British and French spheres was defined. In command of a division of the French 1 army in 1915, General Marchand was decorated with the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour.