Major-General Charles George Gordon CB (28 January 1833 - 26 January 1885), also known as Chinese Gordon, Gordon Pasha, and Gordon of Khartoum, was a British Army officer and administrator.He saw action in the Crimean War as an officer in the British Army.However, he made his military reputation in China, where he was placed in command of the "Ever Victorious Army", a force of Chinese . [93], Gordon remained in the Equatoria province until October 1876. [96] Gordon was not impressed with the forces of the Egyptian state. The Khedive Isma'il was deposed in 1879 in favour of his son, Tewfik, by the Ottoman Sultan Abdul-Hamid II following heavy diplomatic pressure from the British, French, and Italian governments after Isma'il had quarreled with Baring. [187] In his last weeks, those who knew Gordon described him as a chain-smoking, rage-filled, desperate man wearing a shabby uniform who spent hours talking to a mouse that he shared his office with when he was not attacking his Sudanese servants with his rattan cane during one of his rages. I also had the honour of working with George for many years and I will miss seeing his smile. [241][242], The Church Missionary Society (CMS) work in Sudan was undertaken under the name of the Gordon Memorial Mission. [95], The Egyptian authorities had been extending their control southwards since the 1820s. [40] Gordon's bravery in battle, his string of victories, apparent immunity to bullets and his intense, blazing blue eyes led many Chinese to believe that Gordon had supernatural powers and had harnessed the Qi (the mystical life-force traditionally believed in China to govern everything) in some extraordinary way. He is survived by George and Jacqueline Gordon; four nieces he helped raise and home school; Kohl Gordon Conner and her girls Ruth and Faith; his brother Thor Eric Downing. [156], The year 1881 was the Islamic year 1298, and to mark the coming of the new century, Ahmed announced that he was the Mahdi, and proclaimed a jihad against the Egyptian state. [203], In 1982, a documentary on Gordon's life was written and presented by the actor and historian Robert Hardy, entitled "Gordon of Khartoum". George Gordon Obituary - Temple Terrace, FL [224] This symbolic decapitation echoed General Gordon's death at the hands of the Mahdist forces in 1885. Gordon loved his family, and enjoyed spending time with his grandchildren, letting them comb his beautiful white hair and catching them in the "bear trap." Obituaries & Death Notices in Glasgow - Funeral Guide [63] Gordon's closest friends were a couple, Frederick and Octavia Freese, whose son Edward, became Gordon's surrogate son. Such a kind and calm person. Home Obituaries Locations Harrisburg, PA Pittsburg, PA . [121], In March 1879, Gessi had inflicted a sharp defeat on Zobeir even before Gordon had joined him to pursue their old enemy. [59] Gordon seemed pleased by his simple lifestyle, writing in a letter that: "One night, I slept better than I have for a long time, by a fire in a fisherman's hut". Would not the right honorable Gentleman consider whether this statue [] might not receive special consideration []? As late as 1933, the French historian Pierre Crabits wrote in his book Gordon, le Soudan et l'esclavage (Gordon, the Sudan and Slavery) that as a Frenchman, the Gordon legend had meant nothing to him when he began researching his book, but after examining all of the historical evidence, he could not help but admire Gordon, who "died as he lived, a Christian, a gentleman, and a soldier". The Khedive's great dream was to make Egypt culturally a part of Europe, and he spent huge sums of money attempting to modernise and Westernise Egypt, in the process going very deeply into debt. [96] The other force for law and order were the much-feared bashi-bazouks, irregulars who were not paid a salary, but were expected to support themselves by looting. [248], In the 20th century, many British military leaders came to have a critical view of Gordon, with Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery writing that Gordon was "unfit for independent command, mentally unbalanced, a fanatic, self-imposed martyr", adding that he should never have been sent to the Sudan and the GladstoneGordon relationship was a case study in dysfunctional civilmilitary relations. He won legal cases in the Federal District 9th Circuit Court and the Supreme Court all based on religious free exercise. [12], To block the French, a British force under Herbert Kitchener was sent to conquer the Mahdiyah state and defeated the Ansar at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898. Asher concludes: "He did not save the country from invasion or disaster, but among the British heroes of all ages, there is perhaps no other who stands out so prominently as an individualist, a man ready to die for his principles. Taught by his father to love the sea and all things nautical, George was a boater through and through. [43] Gordon wrote: "The great thingis to cut off their retreat, and the chances are they will go without trouble; but attack them in the front, and leave their rear open, and they fight most desperately". [201], Gordon and the Mahdi never met, but the two men, both charismatic and intensely religious soldiers who saw themselves as fighting for God, had developed a grudging mutual respect. A militia of Europeans and Asians was raised for the defence of the city and placed under the command of an American, Frederick Townsend Ward, and occupied the country to the west of Shanghai. [75], Gordon, at the age of 14,[76] said that he wished he had been born a eunuch, which has been taken to suggest that he wanted to annihilate all of his sexual desires and, indeed, his sexuality altogether. whatever God wants will be). [253], Strachey, a member of the Bloomsbury Group of intellectuals, depicted Gordon as a ludicrous figure, a bad-tempered, deranged egomaniac with a nasty habit of knocking out Arabs whenever he was unhappy, and who led himself into disaster. [193], To keep up morale, Gordon had a military band perform concerts in the central plaza every Friday and Sunday evenings for free, and cast his own decorations for his men. My condolences to all of George's family, and may they be comforted that George is in heaven with Jesus, looking after us all. Faught also pointed out that the first hints that Gordon might secretly have been having sex with the boys of the Fort House were made by Lytton Strachey in his book Eminent Victorians (published 1918) which, in Faught's opinion, may have said more about Strachey than it did about Gordon. [39] Li was impressed with Gordon, writing: It is a direct blessing from Heaven, the coming of this British Gordon. Fri,03/03/23-11:56AM, 38 Reads. Nephew to John and Delcie Moriarty, Jim Moriarty (late Brenda), Lorraine Hatley (late Bill). [49], As Gordon travelled up and down the Yangtze River valley, he was appalled by the scenes of poverty and suffering he saw, writing in a letter to his sister: "The horrible furtive looks of the wretched inhabitants hovering around one's boats haunts me, and the knowledge of their want of nourishment would sicken anyone; they are like wolves. [12] The Romanian historian Eric Tappe described Gordon as a man who developed his own "very personal peculiar variety of Protestantism". Mark Urban argued that Gordon's final stand was "significant" because it was "a perversion of the democratic process" as he "managed to subvert government policy", making the beginning of a new era where decision-makers had to consider the power of media. [151] After the Battle of El Obeid, Egyptian morale, never high to begin with, simply collapsed, and the black flag of the Mahdi soon flew over many towns in the Sudan. [258], More balanced biographies are Charley Gordon: An Eminent Victorian Reassessed (1978) by Charles Chenevix Trench and Gordon: The Man Behind the Legend (1993) by John Pollock. [210], The British press criticised the relief force for arriving two days late, but the main relief force was nowhere near Khartoum by then and only the reconnaissance party under Sir Charles Wilson on two gunboats had attempted to reach Khartoum, though it was later argued that the Mahdi's forces had good intelligence, and if the camel corps had advanced earlier, the final attack on Khartoum would also have come earlier. Anything you need, Im here. George graduated from Arsenal Technical High School in 1960 and went on to graduate from Purdue University in 1965, majoring in Electrical Engineering. I had the pleasure of working with George for many years at Sterling Marking Products. [35] The British arrived at a crucial time. [135] The British diplomat Thomas Francis Wade reported, "The Chinese government still holds Gordon Pasha in high regard", and were anxious to have him back to fight against Russia if war should break out. [51] The Emperor was much offended when he received Gordon's message at the Forbidden City, and Gordon's military career in China was effectively over for a time. I would feel so bad but he was always so patient and easy going. [100] Gordon soon learned that his superior, the Governor-General of the Sudan, Ismail Aiyub Pasha, was deeply involved in the slave trade and was doing everything within his power to sabotage Gordon's anti-slavery work by denying him supplies and leaking information to the slavers. [172], After arriving in Khartoum, Gordon announced that on the grounds of honour, he would not evacuate Khartoum, but rather, would hold the city against the Mahdi. In New York, Paris, and Berlin, pictures of Gordon appeared in shop windows with black lining as all over the West, the fallen general was seen as a Christ-like man who sacrificed himself resisting the advance of Islam. The scriptures both Old and New Testaments are the law of his life and death. Among his best-known works are the lengthy narratives Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage; many of his shorter lyrics in . Jackie and Thomas Reinke | Obituaries | norfolkdailynews.com You can then forward the email to the family or print it and give it to them personally. Aged 86 years. [12], The British government asked Gordon to go to Khartoum to report on the best method of carrying out the evacuation. To slow down the Ansar assaults, Gordon built primitive landmines out of water cans stuffed with dynamite and to confuse the enemy about his numbers, he put up wooden dummies in uniform along the walls of Khartoum facing the Blue Nile. He is greatly missed by all who were touched by his intellectual kindness. [155] He accepted and returned to London to make preparations, but soon after his arrival, the British requested that he proceed immediately to the Sudan, where the situation had deteriorated badly after his departure another revolt had arisen, led by the self-proclaimed Mahdi, Mohammed Ahmed. [134] Gordon found the life of a private secretary to be, in his words, a "living crucifixion" that was unbearably boring, leading him to resign with the intention of going to East Africa, particularly Zanzibar, to suppress the slave trade. George Folk Obituary (1938 - 2023) - Findlay, OH - The Courier [203], During NovemberDecember 1884, Gordon's diary showed the stressful effects of the siege, as he was in a state of mental exhaustion, a man on the brink of madness. [43] Gordon always preferred to outflank the Taiping lines rather than to take them on frontally, an approach that caused much tension with his counterparts in the Chinese Imperial Army who did not share Gordon's horror at the huge numbers of casualties caused by frontal assaults. An official certificate recognizing your purchase will be included with your email receipt. George married Lola Shafer and they divorced. [108] Gordon often personally intercepted slave convoys to arrest the slavers and break the chains of the slaves, but he found that the corrupt Egyptian bureaucrats usually sold the freed Africans back into slavery, and the expense of caring for thousands of freed slaves who were a long away from home burdensome. It arrived two days after the city had fallen and Gordon had been killed. His subordinate, Gessi Pasha, fought with great success in the Bahr-el-Ghazal district in putting an end to the revolt there. 1Corinthians 15:54 . Ever since the realisation of the sacrament, I have been turned upside down". "[207], The relief force under General Wolseley, which set out from Wadi Halfa, was divided into two columns at Kortia 1,200-strong "flying column" or "desert column" of camel-borne troops which would cross the Bayuda desert to reach Metmemma on the Nile and meet Gordon's gunboats there, and the main column which would continue to advance along the Nile heading for Berber. [184] In his diary, Gordon wrote: "I own to having been very insubordinate to Her Majesty's Government and its officials, but it is my nature, and I cannot help it. The headless body of the Mahdi was thrown into the Nile. Gordon's papers, as well as some of his grandfather's (Samuel Enderby III), were accepted by the British Library around 1937. Planting will take place in Spring or Summer of the same year. My thoughts are will you all (Chelsea, Janine, Samantha and the grandkids). Under heavy fire from Ansar warriors on the bank, the two steamers turned back downriver. George Gordon - Wynyard, Saskatchewan , Conley Funeral Home - Memories wall [87] Before Gordon boarded the ship at Alexandria that was to take him home, he sent off a series of long telegrams to various ministers in London full of Biblical verse and quotations that he claimed offered the solution to all of the problems of modern life. [218], Baringwho deeply disliked Gordonwrote that because of the "national hysteria" caused by Gordon's death, saying anything critical about him at present would be equal to questioning Christianity. His students and attendees have included people from Australia, New Zealand, Ukraine, Canada, Ireland and all 50 states all of whom traveled to and stayed in Isabella. [159], On 35 November 1883, the Ansar (whom the British called "Dervishes"), as the Mahdi's followers were known, destroyed the Egyptian army of 8,000 under Colonel Hicks at El Obeid, with only about 250 Egyptians surviving and Hicks being one of the slain. [199] The Pall Mall Gazette, in a front page leader, wrote that Gordon stood "out in clear relief against the Eastern sky. Order by noon, TUES-SAT [12] This account was very popular with the British press as it contained much Christian imagery with Gordon as a Christlike figure dying passively for the sins of all humanity. The French hoped that conquering the Sudan would allow them to lever the British out of Egypt, and thus restore Egypt to the French sphere of influence. [222], Egypt had been in the French sphere of influence until 1882 when the British had established control over Egypt. [195], It took considerable time to hire the voyageurs in Canada and bring them to Egypt, which delayed the expedition. Dr. Gordon. Gordon granted Powers privileged access and in return, Powers started to write a series of popular articles for The Times depicting Gordon as the solitary hero taking on a vast horde of fanatical Muslims. The troops reached Korti towards the end of December, the small "Desert Column" reaching Metemma on 20 January 1885, fighting the Battle of Abu Klea[198] on 18 January and Abu Kru (or Gubat) en route. Critics inverted his acronym, "G.O.M." As a sapper, Gordon was in a front line trench where he was under intense fire, men fell all around him and he was forced to take cover so often that he was covered literally from head to toe with mud and blood. [52] At Kitang, Gordon was wounded for the second time on 21 March 1864, when a Taiping soldier shot him in the thigh. [233], In 1886, the Western Hospital for Fistula, Piles and other Diseases of the Rectum, at 278 Vauxhall Bridge Road, and backing onto Vincent Square London,[234] was renamed in honour of Gordon. George was predeceased by his father, and is survived by his mother. [94], The siege of Khartoum by the Mahdist forces, commanded by the Mahdi himself, started on 18 March 1884. [53], The Emperor promoted Gordon to the rank of tidu (: "Chief commander of Jiangsu province" a title equal to field marshal), decorated him with the imperial yellow jacket, and raised him to Qing's Viscount first class, but Gordon declined an additional gift of 10,000 taels of silver from the imperial treasury.