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.]
GORELL, first Baron (1848–1913), judge. [See Barnes, John Gorell.]
GORST, Sir JOHN ELDON (1835–1916), lawyer and politician, was born at Preston 24 May 1835. He was the second son of Edward Chaddock Gorst, who took the name of Lowndes on succeeding to some family property in 1853. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of John Douthwaite Nesham, of Houghton-le-Spring, Durham. Gorst was educated at Preston grammar school and matriculated at St. John’s College, Cambridge, in 1858, He was third wrangler in 1857 and in the same year was elected a fellow of his college (1857–1860). He became an honorary fellow in 1890. He chose the bar as his profession, but after a few months of legal study took a mastership at Rossall School in order to be near his father, who was seriously ill. Mr. Lowndes died in 1859, and Gorst, instead of returning to London, determined to try his fortune in the Colonies. During a three months’ voyage in a sailing ship to New Zealand, he became engaged to Miss Mary Elizabeth Moore, daughter of the Rev. Lorenzo Moore, of Christchurch, New Zealand. They were married in Australia in 1860, and arrived in the North Island of New Zealand in the summer of that year.
Almost immediately Gorst became involved in New Zealand politics. The British government was then engaged in a land dispute with the Maoris of the Waikato district, and since these were of the party which followed the Maori king, a nationalist rebellion was imminent. Gorst made friends among the native chiefs, and also won the confidence of the British and Colonial authorities. Some letters which he wrote to the New Zealander, deprecating the use of force to crush a weaker race, made a considerable impression in the colony, and he was shortly afterwards used as an intermediary between the government and the recalcitrant chiefs. In 1861 he was appointed inspector of native and missionary schools in Waikato, a position which he was expected to combine with that of semi-official intelligence officer. In the following year the governor, Sir George Grey [q.v.], who was experimenting with reformed institutions in the hope of averting a serious conflict, made Gorst his civil commissioner for the Waikato district. He held the position for a year, towards the end of which he edited a newspaper, the Pitroihoi Mokemoke, which was intended to counteract Maori propaganda. The new methods of government failed, the journal excited the active hostility of the Maoris, and in March 1863, shortly before the outbreak of rebellion on a large scale, the rebels raided the printing office and carried off the press and type. Gorst was ordered to withdraw, and he and his family narrowly escaped with their lives.
His appetite for adventure satisfied,
218
