Charles Gordon (British Army officer)
Brigadier-General Charles Gordon | |
|---|---|
 |
Brigadier-General Charles William Eric Gordon (April 1878 – 23 July 1917) was a British Army officer. He was killed in action in 1917 whilst commanding the 123rd Brigade.
Biography
[edit]The son of Colonel W. Gordon and Edith Gordon of Wethersfield Place, Braintree, Essex, Charles Gordon was educated Harrow School. He was gazetted a second lieutenant with the 3rd (Militia) Battalion, The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) in 1897. In 1899 he transferred to the 2nd Battalion.
He fought through the Second Boer War with the 2nd Battalion, taking part in the advance on Kimberley, the Battle of Paardeberg, and several other engagements.[1] After the war, he went to India with his battalion for ten years, including three years as regimental adjutant.
Promoted to major in 1915,[2] he was then severely wounded at the Battle of Loos shortly after. In 1916, he commanded a battalion at the Battle of the Somme. Later that year, he was appointed brigadier-general.
On 23 July 1917, Gordon and Captain George Frederick Pragnall, his brigade-major, were killed by a German shell in Belgium.
References
[edit]- Davis, Frank; Maddocks, Graham (1995). Bloody Red Tabs - General Officer Casualties of the Great War, 1914-1918. London: Leo Cooper, pp. 65.