biography
| name: |
Gordon, Charles George
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1833–85)
|
| biography:
| British general, born in Woolwich, E Greater London, UK. He trained at Woolwich Academy, joined the Royal Engineers in 1852, and in 1855–6 fought in the Crimean War. In 1860 he went to China, where he crushed the Taiping Rebellion, for which he became known as Chinese Gordon. In 1877 he was appointed Governor of the Sudan. He resigned in poor health in 1880, but returned in 1884 to relieve Egyptian garrisons which lay in rebel territory. By tradition (there is some doubt about the actual events), he was besieged at Khartoum for 10 months by the Mahdi's troops, and was killed there two days before a relief force arrived. The incident captured the public imagination, and there are memorials to Gordon in St Paul's Cathedral and elsewhere. |
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