The 1897 Benin ambush of 4 January left seven British members of a party travelling towards Benin City dead and forced its two surviving British members, Captain Alan Maxwell Boisragon and Ralph Locke, District Commissioner of Warri, into an extraordinary struggle for survival. Both men were wounded. For nearly five days they moved through dense vegetation, avoided pursuit, suffered extreme dehydration and collected minute quantities of morning dew before eventually reaching water and friendly territory.
Their survival, however, is only one part of the story. The attack occurred during an escalating confrontation between the Kingdom of Benin and an expanding British imperial administration determined to increase its political and commercial influence in the region. Within weeks, a British military expedition captured Benin City, looted thousands of royal and sacred objects and transformed the political future of the kingdom.
The Road Towards the 1897 Benin Ambush
The expedition left Sapele on 2 January 1897. It was led by James Robert Phillips, Acting Consul-General of the Niger Coast Protectorate. Among the Europeans travelling with him were Major Copland Crawford, Ralph Locke, Captain Arthur Maling, Dr Elliot, Kenneth Campbell, commercial representatives and Captain Alan Maxwell Boisragon.
The expedition depended heavily on African personnel. Boisragon estimated that about 240 carriers had been assembled during preparations, including approximately 180 people he called “Jakris”, the historical British spelling commonly used for the Itsekiri, and about 60 Kroo labourers.
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Before the inland journey continued, there were serious warnings.
Messengers returning from Benin reported that Oba Ovonramwen did not wish to receive Phillips immediately. Annual ceremonies were taking place, and the Oba asked him to postpone the visit for one or two months until he sent word that he was ready. He also indicated that when Phillips eventually came, he wanted him accompanied by only one Itsekiri chief rather than a large European party.
Chief Dore, an influential Itsekiri chief, also warned Phillips against continuing towards Benin City. Boisragon recorded that Dore said Benin forces intended to prevent the party from reaching the capital.
Phillips nevertheless continued.
The party was not organised like the large British invasion force that would arrive the following month. A drum and fife band belonging to the Niger Coast Protectorate Force was sent back because its military appearance might cause alarm. Boisragon also recorded that instructions had been given that revolvers should not be displayed. Because the men were travelling in shirtsleeves in the heat and could not conceal their weapons, their revolvers were locked inside their baggage.
The journey nevertheless formed part of Britain’s wider political involvement in the region.
By late 1896, British officials were already discussing forceful action against Ovonramwen. Phillips had requested permission in November 1896 for an expedition the following February that would remove the Oba and establish a new political arrangement. The Foreign Office later decided that the necessary troops were unavailable and sent instructions on 8 January 1897 postponing the proposed operation for a year. By then, Phillips was already dead.
Gunfire on the Road to Benin City
On the morning of 4 January, the party continued inland from Gwatto, also known as Ughoton. One official, Lyon, returned towards Sapele, leaving the nine Europeans who formed the party attacked later that day.
At about 3 p.m., a shot sounded behind the leading group. It was immediately followed by sustained gunfire.
The column quickly collapsed into chaos.
Phillips was killed. Other members of the party were shot as they attempted to escape or make their way back towards Gwatto. Boisragon initially tried to return for his revolver but could not reach it.
During the fighting, Boisragon was struck at close range in his right arm by what he called “pot-leg”. He described this ammunition as pieces of broken iron cooking pots used as projectiles. The charge tore through his arm but missed the bone.
The force of the impact knocked him down.
Locke was also wounded repeatedly. Boisragon recorded that he had been hit four times in the arm and once in the hip. Despite his injuries, Locke remained able to move.
Boisragon and Locke eventually escaped from the road and entered the bush.
A Compass and a Desperate Route Through the Bush
The two men had good reason to avoid retracing the recognised route towards Gwatto. They feared that Benin fighters would be waiting along it or could follow them through the surrounding vegetation.
Instead, they attempted to reach Gwatto Creek farther upstream.
A small compass became essential to their survival. Boisragon had earlier told Locke to recover the compass Captain Maling had been using. With it, they attempted to maintain a north-westerly direction through the bush.
The direct distance to the creek was not enormous. Boisragon later wrote that a subsequent survey suggested it could not have been much more than seven miles from the point where they left the road.
The terrain turned those few miles into a formidable journey.
They possessed almost nothing capable of cutting a path through dense vegetation apart from Locke’s pocket knife. They had to crawl under growth, push around obstacles and repeatedly alter direction. Boisragon estimated that their actual wandering may have covered about 17 miles.
They were wounded, exhausted and increasingly dehydrated.
41 Hours Without Even a Drop of Dew
Thirst rapidly became their greatest danger.
At about 6 a.m. on 6 January, the men obtained their first moisture since before 1 p.m. two days earlier.
They calculated that they had gone approximately 41 hours without even a drop of dew.
The moisture they finally found did not come from a stream or pool. It came from vegetation.
They began learning how to collect tiny drops of morning dew from leaves. Plantain leaves proved particularly useful because their broad surfaces held larger droplets than much of the surrounding vegetation.
Even then, the amount was desperately small.
Boisragon estimated that on their best day, if all the dew they consumed could have been collected together, it might not have amounted to more than about a tablespoonful. Often the droplets were sufficient only to moisten the tongue and throat.
For the first 41 hours of their ordeal they obtained no moisture. Dew then became an emergency source of hydration until they eventually found actual water.
The Biscuit They Could Not Eat
Food offered little relief.
During their escape, the two men encountered one of the Itsekiri carriers who had fled the attack. The man could not direct them to water, but he gave each of them a hard ship’s biscuit from his rations. The biscuits had been soaked in palm oil.
Boisragon and Locke were so dehydrated that they could not swallow them.
They put the biscuits in their pockets and continued.
The encounter also illustrates the wider human story of the ambush. Boisragon and Locke were the two surviving British members of the attacked party, but African members of the expedition also escaped.
Boisragon named Herbert Clarke, one of the government interpreters, among the survivors. He later estimated that approximately 15 Kroo men and about 40 Itsekiri carriers had escaped.
The survival story therefore extended far beyond the experience of the two British officials.
Reaching Water and Aketti
By 9 January, nearly five days after the attack, Boisragon and Locke finally approached the waterways they had been seeking.
They encountered men who hurried them into a small dugout canoe and later allowed them to drink from clear water after they had rounded a bend.
For men who had spent days surviving on traces of moisture, the discovery marked the beginning of their escape from immediate danger.
Their rescuers paddled them across Gwatto Creek to Aketti, an Itsekiri settlement of about 25 or 30 huts. There Locke recognised the local headman, who had traded at Warri.
For the first time since entering the bush, the men realised they were relatively safe.
Their physical condition was severe. Their clothing was torn, their bodies were scratched and bloody, and Boisragon’s untreated arm wound had deteriorated.
They were later concealed beneath mats in a canoe while being taken farther from danger. After reaching safer territory, they were finally given fu-fu. Boisragon recorded that it was their first food for more than five days.
The Ambush and Britain’s Imperial Plans
The January party differed significantly from the 1,200-strong military expedition that attacked Benin the following month. Its members were not openly carrying their revolvers when the ambush began, and Phillips had sent back a uniformed band to reduce the appearance of a military approach.
Phillips, however, was a senior representative of an expanding imperial administration, and British plans concerning Ovonramwen predated the ambush.
In November 1896, Phillips had proposed an expedition intended to remove the Oba. More broadly, British officials sought greater political and commercial access to the kingdom. Ovonramwen resisted growing British pressure on Benin’s sovereignty and trade.
The 1897 Benin ambush therefore occurred within an escalating struggle involving political authority, commerce and imperial expansion.
Its consequences were enormous.
The British Capture of Benin City
News of the attack produced a rapid British military response.
A force of about 1,200 troops was assembled for what British authorities called a punitive expedition. It advanced on Benin City and captured the capital on 18 February 1897.
Ovonramwen was not captured with the city. He and many inhabitants had fled before British forces secured the capital.
British troops occupied the city and royal palace. Thousands of culturally important objects, including brass works, ivory carvings and other royal and sacred material, were removed. National Museums Scotland estimates that between 3,000 and 5,000 objects were taken from palace compounds and other locations during the occupation.
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Many were subsequently sold and dispersed into museums and private collections around the world.
Ovonramwen remained outside British control for several months. He returned to Benin City on 5 August 1897 with hundreds of followers and formally submitted to the British authorities. He was informed that he had been deposed.
He was subsequently removed from the kingdom and sent into exile in Old Calabar, where he remained until his death in 1914.
A History That Still Reaches Into the Present
The events of 1897 continue to shape international discussions about museums, colonialism and ownership of cultural heritage.
On 29 June 2026, three Swiss museums formally returned 18 artefacts from the Kingdom of Benin to Nigeria at the National Museum in Lagos. Fourteen came from the Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zurich, two from Museum Rietberg Zurich and two from the Musée d’Ethnographie de Genève.
Collaborative provenance research under the Benin Initiative Switzerland concluded that the objects were most likely taken during the British attack of 1897.
Their return illustrates the enduring consequences of events that occurred more than a century ago.
Conclusion
Alan Boisragon and Ralph Locke survived one of the most dramatic episodes surrounding the British confrontation with the Kingdom of Benin. Both were wounded during the 4 January 1897 ambush. They escaped into dense bush, navigated with a small compass, endured approximately 41 hours without moisture, survived partly by collecting tiny drops of dew and eventually reached Gwatto Creek and the Itsekiri settlement of Aketti.
Their survival was extraordinary, but they were not the only people who escaped. Herbert Clarke and dozens of African carriers also survived the destruction of the party.
The attack itself cannot be separated from the larger confrontation between the authority of the Kingdom of Benin and the expanding power of the British Empire. Within weeks, Britain conquered Benin City. Within months, Ovonramwen had been deposed and exiled. Thousands of objects removed during the occupation were dispersed around the world, creating a legacy that continues to shape restitution debates today.
Author’s Note
The story of the 1897 Benin ambush is most meaningful when the survival of Alan Boisragon and Ralph Locke is placed within the wider history surrounding it. Their nearly five days in the bush reveal extraordinary endurance under severe injury and dehydration, but the episode also involved African carriers, interpreters and communities whose experiences form an essential part of the story. The ambush emerged from a deepening conflict over sovereignty, trade and British imperial expansion, and its consequences extended far beyond the survival of two men. The conquest of Benin City, the deposition and exile of Oba Ovonramwen, and the dispersal of Benin’s cultural treasures all belong to the same chain of events whose legacy remains visible in the continuing return of Benin artefacts to Nigeria.
References
Boisragon, Alan Maxwell. The Benin Massacre. London: Methuen & Co., 1897. Smithsonian Libraries/Internet Archive digitised edition.
Lobban, Michael. “Removing Rulers in the Niger Delta, 1887–1897.” In Imperial Incarceration: Detention without Trial in the Making of British Colonial Africa. Cambridge University Press, 2021.
National Museums Scotland. “The British Raid on Benin 1897.” Historical account of the January attack, British expedition and removal of cultural objects from Benin City.
Swiss Federal Department of Home Affairs and Federal Office of Culture. “Restitution to Nigeria: Swiss Museums Return 18 Major Artefacts.” 29 June 2026.
