Cornet by purchase, 8 June, 1830. Lieutenant by purchase, 10 July, 1835.
HENRY GORDON.
Cornet in Sir Robert Hay's troop, 24 October, 1706.
LORD ROBERT GORDON.
Made a Cornet, 18 September, 1741.
THOMAS GORDON.
Born at Cairness, 8 December, 1788, son of Charles Gordon, of Buthlau. Was at Eton, 1800 to 1804. Matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford, 20 January, 1806. Cornet in the Greys 10 December, 1807. Lieutenant in March, 1809, and before the close of the year exchanged into the 43rd Regiment. In 1810 he quitted the British service and started on foreign travel. In 1813 he served as Captain on the Staff of the Russian army. In 1816 he was at Constantinople and married Barbara Kana, afterwards Baroness de Pedaiges, a lady of Armenian Greek extraction. In 1821 the war of Greek independence began, and he served as chef d'état major under Ipsilanti. He took an active part at the siege of Tripoliza, and after the town was taken he remonstrated against the treacherous massacre by the Greeks of several thousand Turks. His representations being disregarded, he quitted the service. At last, after many urgent requests that he would join the Greek service again, he, in May, 1826, returned to promote unity and military discipline. In January, 1827, he accepted the command of the expedition to the Piræus with the local rank of Brigadier. His aim was to relieve Athens, then blockaded by Kutahi. Gordon successfully landed his troops at Port Phalerus "under the nose of Reshid Pasha." On 11 February the Turks made a determined attack, but were driven back with great slaughter. Finding that Athens was still able to hold out, he wished to resign, but was induced to continue upon condition of receiving supplies and being "entirely master of his own operations." He continued until the arrival of General Church to take over supreme command as generalissimo. On April 16 Gordon was appointed Director-General of the Ordnance Department. On May 6 the disastrous battle before Athens put an end to all organised military operations by the Greeks in the Morea. The battle of Navarino soon ended the struggle. In 1832 was published in London his "History of the Greek Revolution," a work of great value. On the formation of the Greek Kingdom he was appointed Colonel à la suite and Colonel on the Staff of the Greek army. On 7 July, 1835, he was appointed Major-General. He died at Cairness, 20 April, 1841.
JOHN BLOOMFIELD GOUGH, C.B. (Lieutenant-General).