The use of Soft Point Ammo, from the Dum Dum Arsenal in India helped the Brits...That is how a .303 stops a Dervish.
Presumably the Officer in the bottom painting is Winston C, with his famed Model 1896 Mauser semi-automatic pistol.
He'd been given permission to carry his personally owned pistol rather than a saber that day, having previously suffered a slight injury to his right arm. Interestingly, some authorities list his actions that day as being the first documented account of the use of an autoloading handgun in combat.
And here we are, a hundred-four years later. And beneath the seat of my pickup truck sits a C96 Mauser *broomhandle* pistol that he'd have found instantly familiar, quite capable of doing the job it did then just as effectively for me. Due to a quirk in local firearms laws, it's the best immediate choice available to me for the purpose, and if called upon, I expect it'll serve me well.
But the *DumDum* arsenal *manstopper* loads were soft-nosed pistol ammunition meant to drop an adversary with an edged weapon immediately, and fired in the .455 MkI and .450 pistols of the day, I'd expect they did. Winston carried the C96 for ease of reloading, but missed out on a 20-round magazine like mine has....
And I think the Sudanese batallions at least, and possibly some of the Brits at Omdurman were still using the Martini-Henry. Churchill's own description of a mangled recipient of one of the Martini slugs, which needed little help in the stopping department, mentions their use.
-archy-/-