GORDON, CHARLES GEORGE (1833-85). An English soldier, familiarly known as 'Chinese Gordon' and 'Gordon Pasha.' The son of Henry William Gordon, lieutenant-general of artillery, he was born at Woolwich, January 28, 1833. He was educated at Taunton, and entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich in 1848. Obtain ing a lieutenant's commission in 1852, he served through the Crimean War with distinction. From 1856 to 1858 he was employed in surveying and settling the Russo-Turkish frontier in Asia, and acquired an intimate knowledge of the people and the districts he visited. He was promoted cap tain, 1859; in 1860 joined the Anglo-French forces in China, and was present at the capture of Peking. He remained at Tientsin in command of the royal engineers; he added to the geographical knowledge of China by several expeditions to the unknown interior; in 1862 became major; and in 1863 was appointed commander of the 'Ever Vic torious Army,' which suppressed the formidable Taiping rebellion and opened up the rich prov inces and cities of the silk districts. He refused the large money rewards offered him by the Chinese Emperor, who bestowed upon him the yellow jacket and peacock's feather of a man darin of the first class, with the gold medal and title of Ti Tu, the highest Chinese military rank. In 1864 he received his brevet as lieutenant colonel, and on his return to England was made a C.B. From 1865 to 1871 he commanded the royal engineers at Woolwich, and was distinguished for his charitable work among the sick and poor. From 1871 to 1873 he represented England in the International Danube Commission at Galatz. In 1874 he was sent by Ismail Pasha to establish the authority of Egypt in the Upper Nile basin, and was appointed Governor of the Equatorial Provinces. Subsequently he was created a pasha, and in February, 1877, the Khedive appointed him Governor of the Sudan. His administration was marked by wonderful en ergy and activity in establishing communication between widely separated districts; in the development of the natural resources of the coun try; and in suppressing rebellion and slavery. Tile deposition of Ismail in 1879 led to his resignation. In 1880 he accompanied the Mar quis of Ripon to India as his private secretary, but, finding himself unsuited for the post, at once resigned, and on the invitation of Sir Robert Hart visited China to advise the Government in connection with its strained relations with Russia.
In 1881-82 he commanded the royal engineers in Mauritius, where he attained the rank of major-general. From March to October, 1882, he was connected with the Cape Government in an attempt to terminate the Basuto trouble, but resigned in indignation at the intrigues of Mr. Sauer, Secretary for Native Affairs. The year 1883 he spent in a long-desired visit to the Holy Land. He had undertaken a mission to the Congo for the King of the Belgians • when the catas trophe to Hicks Pasha's army, who was over whelmed by the forces of the Mandi, made the Gladstone Government insist on the Khedive's abandonment of the Sudan. Gordon was commis sioned to effect the withdrawal of the scattered garrisons and the evacuation of the country. He arrived at Khartum in 1884 and received a warm welcome; but his first battle with the hostile Sudanese was unsuccessful, owing to the treachery of two pashas, whom he at once sentenced to death. The capture of Berber by the rebels cut Gordon's communications with Cairo, and he waS beleaguered in Khartum. By vigorous personal effort he successfully repelled the besieging hordes for over ten months, but on January 26, 1885, when a tardily dispatched Brit ish army of relief, under General Wolseley, had arrived within two days' march of the place, Khartum fell through the treachery of Ferig Pasha, and the heroic commander was slain. Gordon's writings include: Reflections n Palestine (London, 1884) ; Last Journal (London, 1885) ; Letters to His Sister (London, 1888). Consult: Andrew Wilson, Ever Victorious Army (London, 1868) ; Hill, Gordon in Central Africa (London, 1881) ; Hake, The Story of Chinese Gordon (Lon don. 1884-85) ; and the various Lives by Archi bald Forbes (1884) ; by his brother, Sir Henry Gordon (London, 1836) ; Sir W. F. Butler (1889) ; D. Boulger (1896) ; and the books on the Egyptian Sudan, by Ohrwalder (trans. 1892) and Slatin Pasha (trans. 1896).