Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/149

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Gordon-Lennox
129
Gordon-Lennox

served in the Mahsud Waziria expedition in 1881, when he commanded the second column; he was mentioned in despatches and was thanked by the government of India. From 1882 to 1887 he commanded a brigade of the Bengal army, and was made major-general on 20 Dec. 1886. In the Burmese expedition he commanded his brigade (1886-7), and he conducted the operations which succeeded in opening up the country between Manipur and Kendat. Once more he received the thanks of the government of India (Lond. Gaz. 2 Sept. 1887). Returning to England, he was made assistant military secretary at headquarters in 1890, and retained the office till 1896. He was promoted lieut.-general in 1891 and general in 1894. On 1 Jan. 1897 he was nominated member of the council of India, and held the post for ten years. He was advanced to K.C.B. in 1898, and to G.C.B. in 1908, and became colonel of 29th Punjab infantry in 1904. He resided in his last years at 35 Onslow Square, London, S.W. He died at Edinburgh on 2 Nov. 1908, and was buried in the Dean cemetery there. He married in 1871 Ella (d. 1903), daughter of Edward Strathearn, Lord Gordon of Drumearn [q. v.], lord of appeal in ordinary, and had issue two surviving sons, both captains in the army.

In 1904 Gordon published a history of the Sikhs, illustrated by himself.

[The Times, 3 Nov. 1908; Lord Roberts, Forty-one Years in India, 30th edit. 1898; J. M. Bullock and C. O. Skelton, A Notable Military Family, The Gordons in Griamachary, 1907; Dod's Knightage; Official and Hart's Army Lists; Sir T. E. Gordon, A Varied Life: a record of military service in India, 1906, p. 236 seq.; H. B. Hanna, Second Afghan War, 1910, iii. 118; W. H. Paget, Records of Expeditions against the North-West Frontier Tribes, 1884; private information from Sir T. E. Gordon.]

H. M. V.


GORDON-LENNOX, CHARLES HENRY, sixth Duke of Richmond and first Duke of Gordon (1818–1903), lord president of the council, born on 27 Feb. 1818 at Richmond house, Whitehall (replaced by Richmond terrace after 1819; Wheatley and Cunningham's London, iii. 162), was the eldest son of Charles Gordon-Lennox, fifth duke of Richmond [q. v.]. Known until his succession to the dukedom as the Earl of March, he was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, graduating B.A. in 1839. He entered as a cornet the royal regiment of horse guards, retiring as captain in 1844, but never saw active service. March was an aide-de-camp to the Duke of Wellington (1842-52), as was his father before him, and to Lord Hill, the duke's successor as commander-in-chief (1852-4). Meanwhile he was returned for West Sussex in the conservative interest at the general election of 1841, and held the seat until the death of his father on 21 Oct. 1860. He spoke with some frequency, and became a recognised authority on agricultural questions. In March 1859 he was appointed president of the poor law board in Lord Derby's second ministry, and was sworn of the privy council; but his tenure of office was brief, as the ministry fell in June. After the return of the conservatives to office in July 1866 Richmond was made knight of the garter on 15 Jan. 1867. He followed his leaders on parliamentary reform, and at the reconstruction of the government after the resignations of Lords Cranborne and Carnarvon and General Jonathan Peel [q. v.], he became president of the board of trade on 6 March 1867. In 1869, when the liberals had returned to office, he was 'sorely against opposing the second reading (of the Insh church bill), but went with his party' (Gathorne Hardy's First Earl of Cranbrook, i. 272). Next year he accepted the leadership of the conservative party in the House of Lords, which had been in abeyance since the retirement of Derby from public life in 1868 [see Stanley, Edward George Geoffrey Smith]. The relations between Richmond and Disraeli were at first not altogether cordial. In parliament, though he never attempted high oratory, Richmond proved a vigorous upholder of conservative principles. In 1872, while permitting the ballot bill to pass its second reading without a division, he carried an amendment making secret voting optional by eighty-three votes to sixty-seven. On a subsequent amendment he retorted on Granville with so much warmth that the clerk had to read the standing order against 'sharp and taxing speeches' (Fitzmaurice's Oranville, ii. 108, 110; Hansard, ccxi., col. 1841). The commons having rejected his amendment, he pressed it to a division, and was defeated by 157 votes to 138.

On the formation of Disraeli's government in February 1874, Richmond became lord president of the council, though he would have preferred the secretaryship for war. He accepted his disappointment 'like a true man, professing himself ready to act for the best of the party' (Gathorne-Hardy, i. 335). On 18 May he introduced in a