Orders, Decorations and Medals

The fine K.C.B., K.C.I.E., C.S.I. group awarded to General Sir Thomas Edward Gordon, late 61st Foot, a British intelligence officer who served in the Indian army on the North West Frontier and during the Mutiny in India, was second in command of the mission to Chinese Turkestan and commanded the 4th infantry brigade during the second Afghan War; he became Oriental and Military Secretary at the British Legation in Tehran in 1889 and later Military Attaché, and was afterwards involved in Persian affairs as a director of the Imperial Bank of Persia

The Most Honourable Order of The Bath, K.C.B. (Military) Knight Commander’s set, comprising neck badge, silver-gilt and enamels, hallmarked London 1897; and breast star, silver, gilt and enamels, minor chips to blue enamel motto on the star; The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, K.C.I.E., Knight Commander’s set, comprising neck badge, gold and enamels; and breast star, silver, gold and enamel; The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India, C.S.I., Companion’s breast badge in gold and enamels with central onyx cameo of a youthful Queen Victoria, the motto of the Order set with small diamonds, suspended from a five-pointed silver star and gold ribbon bar and top suspension brooch, pin removed from this for mounting, minor chips to light blue enamel; Jubilee 1897, silver; Coronation 1902, silver; Indian Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (Lieut. T. E. Gordon, 61st Regt.); Afghanistan 1878-80, no clasp (Brigdr. Genl. T. E. Gordon) the last five mounted for wearing; Afghanistan, Border Commission AH 1303 (1886), gold medal, the reverse inscribed ‘Brigr. General T. E. Gordon, Afghanistan 1886’, with original ribbon, the campaign medals with light contact marks, generally good very fine (10) £8000-10000

Thomas Gordon was born on 12 January 1832, the fourth son of Captain William Gordon, of the 2nd Queen's regiment, by his wife, Dona Mariana Carlotta Loi Gonçalves de Mello. The descendandts of his grandfather, Adam Gordon, included no fewer than thirteen soldiers; and a military education at the Scottish Naval and Military Academy indicated the career intended for him. There was, nevertheless, some financial difficulty in obtaining a commission for him, but eventually the purchase price of £450 was arranged, and Gordon entered the 4th Foot as ensign in 1849. Two years later he saw active service in India in the North-West Frontier campaign against the Mohmands, and, having been promoted lieutenant, he played a conspicuous part during the Indian Mutiny of 1857-59. He commanded the 7th Punjab Infantry in the attack upon and capture of the Oudh forts in July 1858:

‘On 16th July, two days after the capture of Dehayn, the 7th Punjab Infantry, under my command, were again engaged doing hot and hard work at the attack and capture of the Tiraul fort, and we received, as on the former occasion, the best mention in Brigadier-General Berkeley’s despatches. From that time till the end of May 1859, the regiment was continuously employed on active service in the Azimgarh, Faizabad, and Gorakhpur districts, and on the Nepal frontier, the last engagement being under General Sir Hope Grant, in that month. My name was mentioned five times in published despatches for services in the field, twice as commanding the 7th Punjab Infantry in action, and three times as secon-in-command, and I may anticipate here in saying that in reward I was, in the end of that year (1859), promoted to Captain in the 25th King’s Own Scottish Borderers, and later to Brevet-Major in the Army.’

In 1859 he gained his captaincy, and ten years later was gazetted major. In that year (1869) he was present at the Ambala durbar, and in 1873 he accompanied Sir Thomas Douglas Forsyth as second in command of the mission to the ameer of Kashgar. Gordon has described this mission in his book The 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, commande the 4th infantry brigade of the Kabul field force in the Afghan War of 1879-80. He received the C.B. in 1881 for his a ttack on the camp at the village of Ali Khel in this campaign. ln 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 1893. His travels through the Persian empire in his political 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 1893 and received the K.C.B. in 1900.

He retired from active duty in 1893 but continued until shortly before his death to be involved in Persian affairs as one of the directors of the Imperial Bank of Persia. 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. The naval historian Alfred T. Mahan is usually given credit for having introduced the term “Middle East” in an article in 1902. The fact, however, is that Gordon had already used this term in 1900 in his article The Problem of the Middle East. 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.

Sold with 40pp printed extracts from Gordon’s autobiography, A Varied Life.

Sold with a copy of his autobiography, A Varied Life, published in 1906