Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Gough, Charles John Stanley
GOUGH, Sir CHARLES JOHN STANLEY (1832–1912), general, the second son of George Gough, Bengal civil service, of Rathronan, Clonmel, co. Tipperary, by his wife, Charlotte Margaret, daughter of Charles Becher, of Tonbridge, Kent, was born at Chittagong, India, 28 January 1832. Family tradition destined the boy to a soldier’s career in India, where his great-uncle, Field-Marshal Viscount Gough [q.v.], was commander-in-chief. In March 1848 a commission was obtained for him in the 8th Bengal Cavalry, and he served throughout the second Sikh War (1848–1849). He distinguished himself during the Indian Mutiny, first in the Guide Corps and afterwards in Hodson’s Irregular Horse, and took part in the siege of Delhi, in Sir James Outram’s operations near Alumbagh, and in the capture of Lucknow. He received the Victoria cross for four separate acts of gallantry in the course of the Mutiny; in one of these he saved the life of his younger brother, (Sir) Hugh Henry Gough [q.v.], and in another (18 August 1857) he led a troop of Guide cavalry in a successful charge and a hand-to-hand combat. Gough saw further service in the Bhootan expedition of 1864–1865, and commanded a brigade in the Afghan campaign of 1878–1879, receiving the special praise of the commander-in-chief for an independent action on 2 April 1879, in which he defeated the Kuggianis, an Afghan tribe, at Futtehabad. At the end of the same year, when Sir Frederick (afterwards Earl) Roberts [q.v.] was besieged by the Afghans in his cantonment at Sherpur, near Kabul, he ordered Gough to advance from Gundamuk to his assistance, and the march of seventy miles through hostile country was one of the most adventurous of the war, for the transport was miserable and the weather severe. It was accomplished in less than four days, and Gough’s approach (23 December) led the Afghans to attack, and thus gave Roberts his opportunity. For his services Gough was created K.C.B. (1881). He subsequently commanded the Hyderabad Contingent (1881), and his last employment was the charge of a division of the Bengal army (1886–1890). He was promoted general in 1891, and retired in 1895, receiving the G.C.B. He spent his last years in Ireland. In 1897 he published, in collaboration with A. D. Innes, a volume entitled The Sikhs, and the Sikh War, in which he defended the military policy of his great-uncle. He died at Innislonagh, Clonmel, 6 September 1912. Gough married in 1869 Harriette Anastasia, daughter of John W. Power, formerly M.P. for county Waterford; by her he had two sons, Lieutenant-General Sir Hubert de la Poer Gough, and Brigadier-General John Edmond Gough [q.v.].
[Army Lists; The Times, 7 September 1912; Lord Roberts, Forty-one Years in India, 1897; R. S. Rait, Life of Field-Marshal Sir Frederick Haines, 1911.]