Francis Gregson (active 1898) was a British photographer and war correspondent, attached to the Anglo-Egyptian troops under the command of Herbert Kitchener during the reconquest of the Sudan.
[5] Some of these pictures show prisoners with traditional weapons and dress, like the characteristic jibba coats, – items that were later exhibited in British museums as trophies of war.
[11] In her study entitled "Viewing Violence in the British Empire: Images of Atrocity from the Battle of Omdurman, 1898", historian Michelle Gordon published a detailed discussion of Gregson's photographs.
"[13] Similar views were forwarded by Paul Fox, historian at the University of York, who published the following comments in 2018: "Through a study of the photographic record of the British campaign in the Egyptian Sudan, this chapter argues that the unprecedented presence of the recently invented Kodak transformed how armed conflict could be represented to domestic audiences, and that this was recognised by Anglo-Egyptian leaders, who staged events associated with the conclusion of the campaign with the camera in mind, in pursuit of impression management in Britain.
The things people brought home influenced the way Egypt and the Egyptian Soudan were perceived and understood more widely in Britain, and how Britons at war constructed a sense of themselves.