GORDON 



36O7 



GORDON BENNETT CUP 



Egypt, Ismail, for the organiza- 

 tion of the district known as the 

 Egyptian Sudan. After a brief with- 

 drawal, he returned thither in 1877 

 as governor, a position which he 

 resigned in 1880. 



Between 1880 and 1884 the 

 Mahdi, a self-styled successor of 

 the prophet, acquired a dangerous 

 ascendancy over the fanatical 

 Sudanese tribes. The Egyptian 

 government was unable to re- 

 establish its own authority, and the 

 British government was not pre- 

 pared to undertake the task of con- 

 quest. But the Egyptian garrisons 

 at Suakin, Berber, Khartum, and 

 elsewhere were not strong enough 

 to maintain their positions un- 

 supported, and the British govern- 

 ment was induced to commission 

 Gordon with the duty of withdraw- 

 ing them, for which his unique 

 knowledge of the Sudan and his 

 immense personal influence marked 

 him out. But when in 1884 he ap- 

 peared on the scene, he at once 

 formed the conclusion that it was 

 the business of the Egyptian 

 government to " smash the Mahdi" 

 and recover the Sudan. 



The Khartum Expedition 



The result was that in March 

 Gordon, without British troops, 

 was shut up in Khartum, while the 

 British government, believing that 

 he could withdraw if he would, 

 and feeling itself placed in a false 

 position, resented demands for 

 the dispatch of a relief expedition 

 which it persisted in regarding as 

 unnecessary. When the real need 

 was realized it was still believed that 

 the matter was not urgent, and 

 months were wasted in the discus- 

 sion of alternative routes before 

 the expedition actually started 

 in Oct. British troops advanced 

 up the Nile; hi Jan., 1885, the 

 advance guard, after some sharp 

 fighting, reached Metemmeh, 100 m. 

 below Khartum, where it halted for 

 four days and then made its dash 

 to bring Gordon out too late. 

 When it arrived at Khartum on 

 Jan. 28 it found that the Mahdi 

 had rushed the defences two days 

 before, and that Gordon was dead. 



So fell a soldier of true heroic 

 type, a medieval warrior saint, a 

 puritan mystic in the midst of 19th 

 century materialism ; a man who 

 lived by the Faith that can move 

 mountains, doing whatsoever he 

 did to the Glory of God, in the full 

 conviction that he was an instru- 

 ment in the hands of God, fearing 

 nothing and doubting nothing ; 

 one who, left to himself, had re- 

 peatedly accomplished the appar- 

 ently impossible chiefly through 

 liis extraordinary power of influenc- 

 ing others. In China he had led his 

 troops to battle, himself armed 



with nothing but a cane. Sudanese 

 and Arabs had fallen under the 

 spell of his personality. As an ad- 

 ministrator dealing with uncivilized 

 or half-civilized peoples, unham- 

 pered by the complex organization 

 of political systems, he had been 

 incomparable, though a very im- 

 practicable subordinate. When the 

 public services had not demanded 

 his time and energies, he had de- 

 voted them not to his own advance- 

 ment but to the redemption of 

 the waifs and strays of humanity. 

 A national monument was erected 

 to his memory in Trafalgar Square 

 in 1888, and his family placed 

 a cenotaph bearing a recumbent 

 effigy of him in S. Paul's Cathedral. 

 Other memorials are at Chatham, 

 Rochester Cathedral, and West- 

 minster Abbey, and his character 

 and work are fitly commemorated 

 in the Gordon Boys' Home (g.v. ) 

 for destitute lads. A. D. innes 



Bibliography. Col. Gordon in 

 Central Africa, G. B. Hill, 1881 ; 

 The Story of Chinese Gordon, A. E. 

 Hake, 7th ed. 1884 ; Events in the 

 Life of C. G. Gordon, H. W. Gordon, 

 1886; Letters from the Crimea, the 

 Danube, and Armenia, ed. D. C. 

 Boulger, 1888 ; Charles George 

 Gordon (in English Men of Action 

 Series), W. F. Butler, 1889 ; Events 

 of the Taeping Rebellion, with 

 Monograph, Introduction, and Notes 

 by A. E. Hake, 1891 ; Life of 

 Gordon, D. C. Boulger, new ed. 

 1910 ; Gordon at Khartoum, W. S. 

 Blunt, 1911 ; Eminent Victorians, 

 Lytton Strachey, 1918. 



Gordon, LORD GEORGE (1751- 

 93). Third son of the third duke 

 of Gordon. Born in London, Dec. 

 26, 1751, he 

 became a lieu- 

 tenant in the 

 navy, but re- 

 signed on being 

 refused a ship. 

 He entered 

 Parliament in 

 1774 as mem- 

 ber for Lud- 

 gershall,Wilt- 

 '* shire. In 1779 



From an old print he Was elected 



president of the Protestant Asso- 

 ciation for the repeal of the 

 Catholic Relief Act of 1778, and in 

 1780 marched from St. George's 

 Fields to the House of Commons at 

 the head of an enormous mob to 

 present a petition against the 

 measure. (See Gordon Riots.) 



Lord George was imprisoned in 

 *the Tower for eight months and 

 tried for high treason, but was ac- 

 quitted. In 1788, for libelling the 

 British government and Marie 

 Antoinette, he was imprisoned hi 

 Newgate, where he spent the rest 

 of his life, solacing himself with 

 dinners, balls, and music, especially 



the bagpipes. In his later years 

 he was a zealous Jew. He died in 

 Newgate, Nov. 1, 1793. 



Gordon, LUCIE DUFF- (1821- 

 69). British author and translator. 

 Born in Westminster, June 24, 

 1821, the only 

 child of John 

 Austen the 

 jurist, in 1840 

 she married 

 Sir Alexander 

 C o me w a 1 1 

 Duff - Gordon, 

 Bart., and 

 sub sequently 

 numbered 

 among her 



After H.w.phiiup, friends Dic- 

 kens, Thack- 

 eray, Tennyson, and Kinglake, her 

 house in Queen Anne's Gate being 

 famous as a centre of intellectual 

 society. Latterly she lived in 

 Egypt, dying at Cairo, July 14, 

 1869. Her chief works are Letters 

 from Egypt, 1865, and a transla- 

 tion of Von Ranke's Ferdinand I, 

 and Maximilian II of Austria, 

 1853. 



Gordon, PATRICK (1635-99). 

 Scottish soldier. He was born 

 March 31, 1635, at Auchleuchries, 

 in Aberdeen- 

 shire, the jf g 

 younger son of * JE^^JJBIL 

 a poor laird. J&Bf 1EL 

 In 1651 he 

 found his way 

 to Poland, and 

 during the next 

 few years 

 fought for the 

 Swedes, the 

 Poles, and the 

 emperor, being always ready when 

 taken prisoner to transfer his 

 services to his last opponents. In 

 1661 he entered the service of 

 Alexis, tsar of Russia. 



On a visit to England in 1685 

 Gordon was requested by James 

 II to settle permanently in Eng- 

 land, but was unable to obtain per- 

 mission to do so. Shortly after his 

 return 'to Russia, circumstances 

 brought Gordon into contact with 

 the young tsar, Peter the Great, 

 who conceived a great affection for 

 him. Gordon repaid this favour by 

 the part he played in the revolution 

 which ended by establishing the 

 tsar more firmly on the throne ; 

 while in 1698 he crushed the for- 

 midable revolt of the Strelitzes or 

 household troops. He died at Mos- 

 cow, Nov. 29, 1699. Passages from 

 Gordon's Diary were printed for 

 the Spalding Club in 1859. 



Gordon Bennett Cup. Trophy 

 instituted by James Gordon Ben- 

 nett in 1899 for the encouragement 

 of motor-racing. The races in con- 

 nexion with it have taken place in 



Patrick Gordon, 

 Scottish soldier 



