[89] As the attempts of his grandfatherMuhammad Ali the Greatto depose the ruling Ottoman family in favour of his own family had failed due to the opposition of Russia and Britain, the imperialistic Ismai'il had turned his attention southwards and was determined to build an Egyptian empire in Africa, planning on subjugating the Great Lakes region and the Horn of Africa. 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. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and has been regarded as among the greatest of English poets. Thence he returned to Cairo and resigned his Sudan appointment. His parents were first cousins, thus making Geoffrey a great-grandson of William IV twice over. [131] These religious beliefs mirrored differing aspects of Gordon's personality as he believed that he could choose his own fate through the force of his personality and a fatalistic streak often ending his letters with D.V (Deo volente Latin for "God willing", i.e. Initially, the siege of Khartoum was more in nature a blockade rather than a true siege as the Mahdi's forces lacked the strength to wage a proper siege, for example, only cutting the telegraphy lines in April 1884. The long exploitation of the Sudan by Egypt led many Sudanese to rally to the Mahdi's black banner as he promised to expel the Egyptians, whom Ahmed denounced as apostates, and he announced he would establish an Islamic fundamentalist state marking a return to the "pure Islam" said to have been practised in the days of the Prophet Mohamed in Arabia. [45] The next day, Quinsan fell to the 4th Regiment, which led a proud Gordon to write: "The rebels did not know its importance until they lost it". [5] After her death, her place as Gordon's favourite sibling was taken by his very religious older sister Augusta, who nudged her brother towards religion. [187] The merchant recalled Gordon's response: "He called up the guard and gave the orders to shoot me if I moved" and ordered all of the lamps in the palace to be lit up as brightly as possible. Ye are men, not women. [241][242], The Church Missionary Society (CMS) work in Sudan was undertaken under the name of the Gordon Memorial Mission. Aged 86 years. [233], In 1886, the Western Hospital for Fistula, Piles and other Diseases of the Rectum, at 278 Vauxhall Bridge Road, and backing onto Vincent Square London,[234] was renamed in honour of Gordon. Funeral Home website by, Christensen Salmon Generations Funeral Home. It arrived two days after the city had fallen and Gordon had been killed. The dead lie where they fall, and are, in some cases, trodden quite flat by passers by". William Gordon, minister of Glenlivet, he entered Marischal College, The Mahdi and his followers had been fighting a jihad since 1881 and looked forward to taking on the famous General Gordon as a chance to win glory for Allah. Staveley selected Gordon, who had been made a brevet major in December 1862 and the nomination was approved by the British government. [147] Gordon saw his work in building forts to protect Mauritius from a possible Russian naval attack as pointless, and his main achievement during his time there was to advise the Crown to turn the Seychelles islands, whose beauty had greatly moved Gordon, into a new crown colony as Gordon argued it was impossible to govern the Seychelles from Port Louis. In early 1884, Gordon was sent to Khartoum with instructions to secure the evacuation of loyal soldiers and civilians and to depart with them. [159] By the end of 1883, the Egyptians held only the ports on the Red Sea and a narrow belt of land around the Nile in northern Sudan. Obituary. Tribute will contact you if there are any issues. Share. What this almost certainly meant was that Gordon had unresolved homosexual inclinations which, like Kitchener, but unlike Rhodes, he kept savagely repressed. Nancy, [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. [51], Gordon believed this approach was militarily counterproductive, as it encouraged the Taipings to fight to the death, which Gordon felt to be very unwise as the Taiping leader Hong Xiuquan, had become murderously paranoid, conducting bloody purges of his followers. As such, Gordon's role in suppressing the rebellion has caused his reputation to suffer in China, in addition to his role as a general in service of the Manchu-dominated Qing government, which systematically oppressed the Han Chinese majority. Under the Chinese system of familial responsibility, all family members of a rebel were equally guilty even if they had nothing to do with the rebellious individual's acts. [181], The advance of the rebels against Khartoum was combined with a revolt in the eastern Sudan. In 1904, it was moved to Khartoum, where it stood at the intersection of Gordon Avenue and Victoria Avenue, 200 metres south of the new palace that had been built in 1899. The Sudan was judged to be not worth the huge financial costs it would have taken to conquer it, the same conclusion that the Liberals had reached. [86] In 1873, Gordon received a definite offer from the Khedive, which he accepted with the consent of the British government, and proceeded to Egypt early in 1874. Share Obituary. A cornor [i.e., corner] in palace hall. After Baker's release from prison, Isma'il hired him to work in the Sudan. To plant a tree in memory of George GORDON, please visit. [224] This symbolic decapitation echoed General Gordon's death at the hands of the Mahdist forces in 1885. [41], In March 1863, Gordon took command of the force at Songjiang, which had received the name of "Ever Victorious Army". Public opinion would be satisfied with "Chinese Gordon" going to the Sudan, but at the same time, Gordon was given such a limited mandate that the evacuation would proceed as planned. The pedestal bears the arms of the Gordon clan and of the borough of Southampton, and also Gordon's name in Chinese. [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. Send Flowers. [81], In October 1871, he was appointed British representative on the international commission to maintain the navigation of the mouth of the River Danube, with headquarters at Galatz. My thoughts are with his family and his Sterling family who I know will miss him very much. Peacefully, in Migdale Hospital, Bonar Bridge, on Saturday, 18th February, 2023, Robert "Bobby" George Bain, The Bungalow, Lower Gledfield Farm, Ardgay. [187][197] Gordon received a letter from the Mahdi taunting him over the murders of his friends Powers and Stewart, warning that he would be next if he did not surrender. Share. [8] A man of medium stature, with striking blue eyes, the charismatic Gordon had the ability to inspire men to follow him anywhere. It was thus their rivalry with the French, not a desire to "avenge Gordon", that led the British government to annex the Mahdiyah state in 1898. [83] Gordon and Gessi demanded that Ahmed Pasha allow them to meet the girl alone, had their request granted after much arm-twisting, and then met the girl, who ultimately revealed she wanted to go home. [257] In his Mission to Khartum The Apotheosis of General Gordon (1969), John Marlowe portrays Gordon as "a colourful eccentrica soldier of fortune, a skilled guerrilla leader, a religious crank, a minor philanthropist, a gadfly buzzing about on the outskirts of public life", who would have been no more than a footnote in today's history books, had it not been for "his mission to Khartoum and the manner of his death", which were elevated by the media "into a kind of contemporary Passion Play". [244], Charlton Heston played Gordon in the 1966 epic film Khartoum, which deals with the siege of Khartoum. To send flowers Karen and I were shocked and saddened to hear of Georges passing. On 5 August 1884, the House of Commons voted to send the relief force with a budget of 300,000. Im so deeply sorry for the loss of your father. Send Flowers. [123] As Zobeir had broken his oath to the khedive by rebelling, Gordon had given Gessi orders to execute Zobeir, and so later that day Gessi had Zobeir and his men publicly beheaded as an example of what happened to those who broke their oaths. [175] Gordon had a garrison of about 8,000 soldiers armed with Remington rifles, together with a colossal ammunition dump containing millions of rounds. (151 W George St, Batesville, IN 47006). [101] Gordon also clashed with Chaill-Long, whom he accused of working as an informant for Aiyub Pasha and called him to his face a "regular failure". [177] Gordon's attempt to have his former archenemy Zobeirthe "King of the Slavers" whom he had hunted for years and whose son he had executedinstalled as the new Sultan of the Sudan appalled Gladstone and offended his former admirers in the Anti-Slavery Society. His students and attendees have included people from Australia, New Zealand, Ukraine, Canada, Ireland and all 50 states all of whom traveled to and stayed in Isabella. [237], An identical statue by Thornycroftbut with the pedestal intactis located in a small park called Gordon Reserve, near Parliament House in Melbourne, Australia. It underwent a series of name changes until 1941 when it moved to its current location in Bloomburg Street, Westminster, as the Gordon Hospital. Gordon accepted the offer, but shortly after arriving in India, he resigned. He loved family gatherings, playing games and eating home-cooked meals, and he was never too full to enjoy a bowl of ice cream, his favourite treat. Critics inverted his acronym, "G.O.M." He loved their wives, Chelsea, Janine, and Samantha as if they were his own, a trait learned from the great and limitless love he received from his parents-in-law, Tom and Edna Lewis. George graduated from Arsenal Technical High School in 1960 and went on to graduate from Purdue University in 1965, majoring in Electrical Engineering. You will never hear from me again. [18] The casualties on the Allied side were quite high that day. [14], When the Crimean War began, Gordon was assigned to his boyhood home of Corfu, but after several letters to the War Office, he was sent to the Crimea instead. I want no further satisfaction than this". [93] Licurgo Santoni, an Italian hired by the Egyptian state to run the Sudanese post office, wrote about Gordon's time as Governor-General that: as his exertions were not supported by his subordinates, his efforts remained fruitless. The Europeans whom the Egyptians had hired to work as civil servants in the Sudan were no better and proved to be just as corrupt as the Egyptians. To download this photo, the file name must have less than 255 characters. As the Mahdi was long dead, Kitchener had to content himself with blowing up the Mahdi's tomb as revenge for Gordon's death. He was born Sept. 12, 1938, in Findlay, to Earl E. and Mary N. (Corron) Folk. [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. [257] On the basis of such statements and actions, Nutting argued that Gordon's suicidal courage of going into battle armed only with his rattan cane, which so impressed the Victorian public, reflected darker desires. [33] The Anglo-French force remained in northern China until April 1862, then, under General Charles William Dunbar Staveley, withdrew to Shanghai to protect the European settlement from the rebel Taiping army. [182], The ferocity of the Haddendowa attacks astonished the British, and Graham argued that he needed more troops if he were to advance deeper into the Sudan while one newspaper correspondent reported that the average British soldiers did not understand why they were in the Sudan fighting "such brave fellows" for "the sake of the wretched Egyptians". During peak periods such as Valentines Day, Memorial Day and most holidays, florists are not always able to keep up to demand. [49], As Gordon travelled up and down the Yangtze River valley, he was appalled by the scenes of poverty and suffering he saw, writing in a letter to his sister: "The horrible furtive looks of the wretched inhabitants hovering around one's boats haunts me, and the knowledge of their want of nourishment would sicken anyone; they are like wolves. Second only to his faith, was the great joy George found in his family. Loved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather. [56] Gordon also gained the popular nickname, "Chinese" Gordon. I know George will be missed by and a great loss to the Sterling family. Southampton, where Gordon had stayed with his sister, Augusta, in Rockstone Place before his departure to the Sudan, erected a memorial in Porter's Mead, now Queen's Park, near the town's docks. [40] Gordon's insistence on paying his men meant that he was always pressing the Imperial government for money, something which often irritated the mandarins who did not understand why Gordon did not just let his men loot and plunder as a compensation for wages. [151] After the Battle of El Obeid, Egyptian morale, never high to begin with, simply collapsed, and the black flag of the Mahdi soon flew over many towns in the Sudan. We always teased each other on and off the ice Im really going to miss you George. [229][230], Statues were erected in Trafalgar Square, London, in Chatham, Gravesend, Melbourne (Australia), and Khartoum. [12] The Romanian historian Eric Tappe described Gordon as a man who developed his own "very personal peculiar variety of Protestantism". He is greatly missed by all who were touched by his intellectual kindness. You are all in my thoughts and prayers. [248], In the 20th century, many British military leaders came to have a critical view of Gordon, with Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery writing that Gordon was "unfit for independent command, mentally unbalanced, a fanatic, self-imposed martyr", adding that he should never have been sent to the Sudan and the GladstoneGordon relationship was a case study in dysfunctional civilmilitary relations. [133] A deeply depressed Gordon wrote in his letter declining the offer that he knew, for reasons that he refused to explain, that he had only ten years left to live, and he wanted to do something great and grand in his last ten years. Earth's joys grow very dim, its glories have faded". I repeat to you the words of Allah, Do not destroy yourself. You will receive email notifications when changes are made to the online memorial, including when family and friends post to the Guestbook. With heavy hearts, we announce the death of George Gordon Ross (Columbia, South Carolina), born in Berkeley, California, who passed away on February 2, 2023 at the age of 89. Sending you my love. Those wishing to make a donation in memory of George are asked to consider Compassion Canada. You can then forward the email to the family or print it and give it to them personally. [92] Urban wrote that most of the Westerners in Egyptian pay were "misfits" who took up Egyptian service because they were unable to get ahead in their own nations. Due to seasonal conditions, the tree planting takes place during the spring and summer. [32] He arrived at Tianjin in September 1860. The English uniform produces an immediate sensation". [257] Behrman wrote that the first part of Nutting's thesis, that Gordon had a death wish, is generally accepted by historians, but the second part, that Gordon was homosexual, is still the subject of much debate. Messages run for up to one year and you