Gordon, Charles George

British general sent to Khartoum in the Sudan in 1884 to rescue English garrisons that were under attack by the Mahdi, Muhammad Ahmed; he was himself besieged for ten months by the Mahdi's army. A relief expedition arrived on 28 January 1885 to find that Khartoum had been captured and Gordon killed two days before.

Gordon served in the Crimean War and in China 1864, where he earned his nickname ‘Chinese Gordon’ in ending the Taiping Rebellion. In 1874 he was employed by the Khedive of Egypt to open the country and from 1877 to 1880 was British governor of the Sudan.