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Gordon, Charles George
The following data is extracted from Gordon Family Records.
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CHARLES GEORGE: known as Chinese Gordon (1833-1885) , major-general, C. B.; royal engineers; s. Lieut.-Gen. Henry William G
b. Woolwich; joined forces of Sir James Hope Grant operating with the French against China, 1860 ; he took part in clearing the rebel Taipings out of Kah-ding; at the request of the governor-general of the Kiang provinces, Gordon was authorized to accept the command of the Chinese forces called the "Ever Victorious Army," 1863, and he succeeded in stamping out the rebellious Taipings; returning to England he was given charge of construction of forts for defense of the Thames, 1865 ; appointed governor of the equatorial provinces of Central Africa, 1873 ; received combined appointment, 1877, of governor-general of the Soudan, Darfour, the equatorial provinces and the Red Sea littoral; resigned and returned to England, 1880 ; sent to China to advise the government in connection with their then strained relations with Russia; his wise counsels in favor of peace carried the day; returned to England, October, 1880 ; assumed command of troops, as senior officer, at Mauritius, 1882 ; accepted position as commandant of colonial forces at Cape Town, May, 1882, but resigned, October, 1882, and returned to England; visited the Holy Land, 1883 ; ordered to the Soudan, 1883, to accomplish abandonment of the Soudan by the khedive; a relief expedition in command of Sir Herbert Stewart was sent to his assistance but the Mahdi rebels massacred Gordon and his troops; Friday, 13 March, was observed by the grief-stricken English, as a day of national mourning; parliament voted a national monument to be placed in Trafalgar Square; memorials were projected in Westminster Abbey and Rochester Cathedral; the following epitaph was written by Lord Tennyson
"Warrior of God, man's friend, not here below,
But somewhere dead far in the waste Soudan,
Thou livest in all hearts, for all men know
This earth hath borne no simpler, nobler man."
Source: Gordon Family Records
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