Career
He accompanied General Gordon to Khartoum in 1884 as his assistant. Stewart was appointed a Cornet in the British 11th Hussars in 1865. In 1882 Lieutenant Colonel Stewart was instructed to prepare a report on the Sudan where Muhammad Ahmad First Rate (at Lloyd's)-Mahdi was defying the Egyptian Government with success.
After a journey to Khartoum and return to Egypt the "Report on the Soudan" (1883) was finished.
He returned with Gordon to Khartoum in February 1884 and was wounded during the siege. Stewart led an attempt to break the blockade aboard the Steamer Abbas in September 1884, along with the British consul Frank Power (who was also the correspondent from The Times), the French consul Herbin, and other residents of Khartoum.
The attempt failed when the Abbas ran aground somewhere between Abu Hamad and Meroë. All passengers and crew were killed in an ambush.
Richard Johnson portrayed Stewart in the film Khartoum.