Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Gordon, Thomas Edward
GORDON, Sir THOMAS EDWARD (1832–1914), general, was born 12 January 1832, the fourth son of Captain William Gordon, of the 2nd Queen’s regiment, by his wife, Dona Mariana Carlotta Loi Gonçalves de Mello. The descendants of his grandfather, Adam Gordon, included no fewer than thirteen soldiers; and a military education at the Scottish Naval and Military Academy indicated the career intended for him. There was, nevertheless, some financial difficulty in obtaining a commission for him, but eventually the purchase price (£450) was arranged, and Gordon entered the 4th Foot as ensign in 1849. Two years later he saw active service in India in the North-West Frontier campaign against the Mohmands, and, having been promoted lieutenant, he played a conspicuous part during the Indian Mutiny (1857–1859). He commanded the 7th Punjab Infantry in the attack upon and capture of the Oudh forts (14 and 17 July 1858). In 1859 he gained his captaincy, and ten years later was gazetted major. In that year (1869) he was present at the Ambala durbar, and in 1878 he accompanied Sir Thomas Douglas Forsyth [q.v.] as second in command of the mission to the ameer of Kashgar. Gordon has described this mission in his book The Roof of the World (1876), which contains sixty-two illustrations drawn by himself. He held the appointment of assistant adjutant-general to the Lahore division from 1872 to 1874, and again, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, from 1878 to 1879. In the latter year he became deputy adjutant-general, Bengal, and, on promotion to colonel, commanded the 4th infantry brigade of the Kabul field force in the Afghan War (1879–1880). He received the C.B. in 1881 for his attack on the camp at the village of Ali Khel in this campaign. In 1883 he was given the command of a brigade in Bengal and held the appointment for four years, being promoted major-general in 1886.
Having early mastered the Persian language, Gordon was appointed in 1889 Oriental and military secretary to the legation at Teheran, and was military attaché there from 1891 to 1898. His travels through the Persian empire in his official capacity brought him into close contact with Kurds and Beduin, among whom he succeeded in making friends, and, on occasion, he even came to terms with the professional brigands whom he met. His dealings with the Shah, especially on the subject of the defects in the military system then in force in Persia, were marked by the courageous honesty of purpose that characterized the activities of his whole life. In 1890 he was promoted lieutenant-general, and in 1894 full general. He was created K.C.I.E. in 1898 and received the K.C.B. in 1900. In 1895 he published Persia Revisited, which records his impressions of the situation as he found it on his return to that country in the previous year. His autobiography, A Varied Life, was published in 1906, and eight years later, after a hard life well spent, he died in London 23 March 1914. Gordon was twice married: first, in 1862 to Mary Helen (died 1879), daughter of Alexander Sawers, of Culnah, Bengal; secondly, in 1894 to Charlotte, daughter of Joseph Davison, of Greecroft, Durham. There was no issue by either marriage.
[The Times, 24 March 1914.]