george gordon obituary
In addition, one of the first Woolwich Free Ferry vessels was named Gordon in his memory. [114] Gordon was well-known for being utterly obstinate, joking that: "The Gordons and the camels are of the same race. He was warm, steadfast, and peaceable. This Gordon would later use as a reason for staying in Khartoum. [59] Gordon seemed pleased by his simple lifestyle, writing in a letter that: "One night, I slept better than I have for a long time, by a fire in a fisherman's hut". "[260], Gordon also left a legacy in China and Sudan as well, two nations where he spent large parts of his career. [218] In a sermon, the Bishop of Chichester stated: "Nations who envied our greatness rejoiced now at our weakness and our inability to protect our trusted servant. I shall hold on here as long as I can, and if I can suppress the rebellion, I shall do so. I wanted to share a memory from about ten years ago, George did a presentation to some of us and I have never forgotten it. [152] The Spaffords had lost their home and much of their fortune in the Great Chicago Fire and then had seen one of their sons die of scarlet fever, four of their daughters drowned in a shipwreck, followed by the death of another son from scarlet fever, causing them to turn to religion as consolation for unbearable tragedy, making them very congenial company for Gordon during his stay in Jerusalem. [62] Together with Mrs. Sarah Mackley, his housekeeper, he adapted two rooms at Fort House to serve as classrooms and basic needs resource rooms for boys living on the streets. Following the destruction of Hicks's army, the Liberal Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone, decided that the Sudan was not worth the trouble it would take to keep, and that the region should be abandoned to the Mahdi. It arrived two days after the city had fallen and Gordon had been killed. A funeral service will be held on Wednesday, March 8th 2023 at 11:00 AM at the St. Louis Church (13 E St Louis Pl, Batesville, IN 47006 . At the beginning of 1884, Gordon had no interest in the Sudan and had just been hired to work as an officer with the newly-established Congo Free State. [187] When a Lebanese merchant visited Gordon in the evening, the Ansar began an artillery bombardment, leading the frightened merchant to suggest that perhaps Gordon ought to dim the lights to avoid drawing enemy fire down on the palace. [12] Gordon disobeyed orders and left on the first ship to China, an action that very much angered the Army's commander, the Duke of Cambridge. [218], Baringwho deeply disliked Gordonwrote that because of the "national hysteria" caused by Gordon's death, saying anything critical about him at present would be equal to questioning Christianity. [17] Gordon spent much time in "the Quarries", as the British called their section of the trenches, facing Sevastopol. [51] Following a dispute with Li over the execution of rebel leaders, Gordon withdrew his force from Suzhou and remained inactive at Kunshan until February 1864. We love you, we love you, we love you. [90] During the American Civil War, when the Union blockade had cut off the American South from the world economy, the price of Egyptian cotton, known as "white gold" had skyrocketed as British textile mills turned to Egypt as an alternative source of cotton, causing an economic blossoming of Egypt that ended abruptly in 1865. Sep 1938 - Feb 2023. Box 297 [97] Baker's annual salary as governor of Equatoria had been 10,000 (Egyptian pounds, about US$1 million in today's money) and Ismail was astonished when Gordon refused that salary, saying that 2,000 per year was more than enough for him. the passing of George. [79] The frequent references in Gordon's letters about his need to resist "temptation" and "subdue the flesh", Faught argued, related to women rather than men who were "tempting" him. Love, For the family, Your Grief will run deep in the months to come. [116] Faught wrote that Gordon's plans were "farsighted and humane", but Baring had no interest in Gordon's plans to suspend the interest payments. Obituaries act as quiet reminders of the finite nature of our lives. He received no reply as the king had gone southwards to fight with the Shoa. [12] However, the British public and Kitchener himself saw the expedition as one to "avenge Gordon". [18] Despite the best efforts of the Allies, the French failed to take the Malakhov fortress while the British failed to take the Redan fortress on 18 June. Matters then remained quiet until March 1877, when Gordon proceeded to Massawa, hoping to make peace with the Abyssinians. George Gordon of Isabella, Mo died in his wife's arms at his farm August 30 and was buried that same day in the family cemetery on the farm. It wasn't exactly fair to the Egyptian garrisons he had been sent to evacuate; they had no death wish". [171] Gordon made a short trip to Brussels to tell King Leopold that he would not be going to the Congo after all, news that enraged the King. [117], Slavery was the basis of the Sudanese economy, and Gordon's attempts to end the slave trade meant taking on very powerful vested interests, most notably Rahama Zobeir, known as the "King of the Slavers" as he was the richest and most powerful of all the slave traders in the entire Sudan. Powers was delighted that the charismatic Gordon had no anti-Catholic prejudices and treated him as an equal. Our deepest sympathies go out to cousin Nancy, and her family. [209] The Ansar took no prisoners and all of the approximately 7,000 defenders were killed. [87], Gordon had come into conflict with the Egyptian governor of Khartoum and Sudan over his efforts to ban slavery. [208] On the evening of 24 January 1885, the Mahdi met with his generals, whose leading spokesman was his uncle Muhammad Abd al-Karim, who told him that, with the Nile low and Wolseley close, it was time to either storm Khartoum or retreat. [12] The Romanian historian Eric Tappe described Gordon as a man who developed his own "very personal peculiar variety of Protestantism". Anything you need, Im here. [159] The Ansar captured a large number of Remington rifles and ammunition cases together with many Krupp artillery guns and their shells. [4], In 1843, Gordon was devastated when his favourite sibling, his sister Emily, died of tuberculosis, writing years later, "humanly speaking it changed my life, it was never the same since". Rick and Karen Stainthorpe. Their wishes for cremation have been honored. The employees sent by the Moldovan government to take over the ceded territory have been receiving bribes and trafficking in the most disgraceful manner. [63] Gordon's closest friends were a couple, Frederick and Octavia Freese, whose son Edward, became Gordon's surrogate son. [217], The failure to rescue General Gordon's force in Sudan was a major blow to Prime Minister Gladstone's popularity. [206], A particular aspect of Gordon's personality that stood out was his death wish, as everyone who knew him was convinced that he wanted to die. [12], To block the French, a British force under Herbert Kitchener was sent to conquer the Mahdiyah state and defeated the Ansar at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898. Those wishing to make a donation in memory of George are asked to consider Compassion Canada. [192] Nutting wrote that Gordon "could have withdrawn at almost any moment between March and May" if only he had been willing. Of Marton formerly of Auckland. [173] Gordon immediately confirmed Baring's fears as he started to issue press statements attacking the rebels as "a feeble lot of stinking Dervishes" and demanded he be allowed to "smash up the Mahdi". Gordon was quite critical of the way Chinese generals fought the war, observing that the Chinese were willing to inflict and accept gargantuan losses in battle, an approach Gordon disapproved of. [25] As the maps that delineated the Russian-Ottoman frontier were all old and inaccurate, Gordon spent much time clashing with his Russian counterparts about where precisely the frontier was and soon discovered that the Russians were very keen to have the frontier on the Danube, which Gordon had orders from London to prevent. [194], It was not until August 1884 that the government decided to take steps to relieve Gordon, with the British relief force, called the Nile Expedition, or, more popularly, the Khartoum Relief Expedition or Gordon Relief Expedition (a title that Gordon strongly deprecated). George J Gordon III (Trey) of Azle, TX passed away May 1, 2022. He was a manager of mine for a small while and I will always remember how kind and easy going he was.. and his memorable laugh, Always there [47], The Ever Victorious Army was entirely a mercenary force whose only loyalty was to money and whose men were interested in fighting only in order to gain the chance to plunder. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1890 and then erected in Brompton Barracks, Chatham, the home of the Royal School of Military Engineering, where it still stands. A serious revolt then broke out in the Sudan, led by a Muslim religious leader and self-proclaimed Mahdi, Muhammad Ahmad. [258], More balanced biographies are Charley Gordon: An Eminent Victorian Reassessed (1978) by Charles Chenevix Trench and Gordon: The Man Behind the Legend (1993) by John Pollock. [17], On 18 June 1855, the besieging British and French armies began what was intended to be the final assault that would take Sevastopol, which began with a huge bombardment. [99] Joining Gordon on the journey to Equatoria was his old friend Romolo Gessi and a former US Army officer, Charles Chaill-Long, who did not get along well with Gordon. [255] In 1953, the British novelist Charles Beatty published a Gordon biography, His Country was the World: A Study of Gordon of Khartoum, which focused on Gordon's religious faith, but for the first time noted what a tormented figure Gordon was: a man of deeply felt Christian convictions, full of guilt and self-loathing over his own sinfulness and inability to live up to his own impossibly high standards over what a Christian should be and desperately longing to do something to expiate his sinfulness. ObituaryRev. He is survived by George and Jacqueline Gordon; four nieces he helped raise and home school; Kohl Gordon Conner and her girls Ruth and Faith; his brother Thor Eric Downing. [12] This account was very popular with the British press as it contained much Christian imagery with Gordon as a Christlike figure dying passively for the sins of all humanity. [144], Gordon returned to Britain and rented a flat on 8 Victoria Grove in London. [219], In 1885, Gordon achieved the martyrdom he had been seeking at Khartoum as the British press portrayed him as a saintly Christian hero and martyr who had died nobly resisting the Islamic onslaught of the Mahdi. The importance of saying "I love you" during COVID-19, Effective ways of dealing with the grieving process, Solutions to show your sympathy safely during the Covid-19 pandemic. A. [120], Gordon returned south and proceeded to Harrar, south of Abyssinia, and, finding the administration in poor standing, dismissed the governor. Tablet indicates where General Gordon was killed, Jan. 25, 1885", "Khartoum: blackface Olivier scrapes the bottom of some macabre barrels", "The Political Martyr: General Gordon and the Fall of Kartum", The Journals of Major-Gen. C. G. Gordon, C.B., at Kartoum, Newspaper clippings about Charles George Gordon, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Charles_George_Gordon&oldid=1142434977, Chinese Gordon, Gordon Pasha, Gordon of Khartoum, This page was last edited on 2 March 2023, at 10:23. These aims eluded him.[93][114]. Gordon's willingness to renounce his British citizenship in order to fight with China in the event of war did much to raise his prestige in China. To plant a tree in memory of George GORDON, please visit. [184] The British government had decided to abandon the Sudan, but it was clear that Gordon had other plans, and the public increasingly called for a relief expedition. The Grand Valley community is mourning the death of George Gordon, who coupled his philanthropic passions for education and art throughout West Michigan. Aged 86 years. Jamie Wyble passed away peacefully surrounded by his family on February 24, 2023, at the age of 55 after a very brief battle with brain cancer. [121], In March 1879, Gessi had inflicted a sharp defeat on Zobeir even before Gordon had joined him to pursue their old enemy. [104] Gordon chose not to meet Muteesa himself, instead sending his chief medical officer, a German convert to Islam, Dr. Emin Pasha, to negotiate a treaty wherein in exchange for allowing the Egyptians to leave the Buganda, the independence of the kingdom was recognised. [243], In the Presidential Palace in Khartoum (built in 1899), in the west wing on the ground floor, there was, at least until 1936, a stone slab against the wall on the left side of the main corridor when coming from the main entrance with the text: "Charles George Gordon died26 Jan 1885", on the spot where Gordon was killed, at the foot of the stairs in the old Governor-General's Palace (built around 1850). Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. [201], Gordon and the Mahdi never met, but the two men, both charismatic and intensely religious soldiers who saw themselves as fighting for God, had developed a grudging mutual respect. [87], Instead, the Ottoman-Egyptian system had defeated him with almost all of Gordon's reforms having failed owing to the venality of the bureaucracy who shared absolutely none of Gordon's moral outrage at slavery and injustice, and Gordon's dreams of making things better for the ordinary people were dissolved in the face of greed and the self-interest of others. In the article, Stallard pointed to the egalitarianistic attitudes displayed by Gordon towards the Chinese, and argued that if Chinese historians paid closer attention to the activities of Gordon in China, it would improve Anglo-Chinese relations.