When the commander of Queen Victoria's most prestigious cavalry regiment was convicted on morals charges, most thought his career was over. There were however, in the grand days of Empire, many faraway places to begin anew. So it was, in a real-life version of The Four Feathers and Beau Geste, that Valentine Baker embarked on his personal crusade to regain his lost honor. Several of Victoria's sons, who had served in Baker's regiment, defied their mother to secure postings for the colonel with some of Britain's allies. Baker served with the Turkish army against the Russians, then served in Egypt and the Sudan (British areas of interest, but nominally under Turkish control). A revolt against foreign rule in the Sudan led Baker into what was to be his last campaign. Leading local troops in the attempt to rescue Gordon at Khartoum, Baker fought a series of classic Colonial battles against the fanatical desert tribesmen of the Mahdi and the Khalifa.
