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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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General Gordon
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(Charles Gordon, 1833–85)
A heroic figure in Victorian Britain even before his death at *Khartoum completed the legend. He first came to public attention through the events which gave him his popular name, 'Chinese Gordon'. The Europeans in Shanghai (of whom there were an increased number after the second *Opium War) were threatened in 1863 by a violent uprising, the Taiping rebellion. Gordon was put in command of some 4000 untrained Chinese and proved himself, in an 18-month campaign, to be an inspired and fearless leader of irregular troops. The subsequent highlights of his career all shared this element of derring-do on the frontiers of empire.
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From the 1870s Britain had close links with the khedive of *Egypt. Gordon became governor (1877–80) of the vast and unruly Egyptian province of the *Sudan, where he succeeded in pacifying the area. But after his return to England a charismatic popular leader emerged in the region, calling himself the *Mahdi (in very broad terms the Muslim equivalent of a *Messiah). His followers threatened the Egyptian garrisons in the Sudan, and Gordon accepted a call to relieve them. Instead, he found himself besieged in *Khartoum.
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In a final extraordinary demonstration of his leadership he inspired a feeble garrison to withstand a 10-month siege, while the prime minister, Gladstone, dithered in London over whether to send a relief force. On 26 January 1885 the city wall was breached and the entire garrison slaughtered. The relieving army arrived two days too late. The Mahdi's followers then made their capital city at Omdurman, on the opposite bank of the Nile, from which they were dislodged by *Kitchener 13 years later.
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