A VICTORIAN POKER WORK DECORATED WALKING CANE

William Gill (1843-1882) was the son of Major Robert Gill, who inherited a fortune in 1879 and then funded his explorations into China, Tibet, Persia, India, Turkey and North Africa and became a spy for the British during the Urabi nationalist uprising in Egypt. He was reputedly bludgeoned to death with his own walking stick in 1883, when he covertly led a party into the Sinai desert to cut a telegraph line in favour of the British, who were protecting their interests in the Suez canal during the Urabi revolt. It is likely that the Arab guides colluded with the Bedouin tribesman, who supported the nationalists and seized Gill, Professor Edward Palmer, Lieutenant Harold Carrington and Bakhor Hassum and all subsequently killed. A few days later on the 15th August the British defeated the Egyptian nationalists and occupied Cairo. Gill's journals were later given to the Royal Geographic Society in 1932.