Religious writings of Charles Gordon

Charles George Gordon (1833-1885) was born in Woolwich on 28 January 1833. He entered the Royal Engineers in 1852, and was promoted after serving in the Chinese War, 1860-1862. He commanded the Chinese forces against the Taipings, 1863-1864, and was Governor of the equatorial provinces of Africa, 1874-1876. Gordon was made Governor-General of the Soudan in 1877, and was the commanding Royal Engineer in Mauritius, 1881-1882. He was made a Major-General in 1882, and became Governor-General of the Soudan in 1884, with responsibility for the evacuation of the country. He was killed by the Mahdi at the siege of Khartoum.

Undated photocopies of writings on religious subjects, 41 pages. The title page records that 'these papers were written by Chinese Gordon and given by him to James Macalister, during a voyage from Port Elizabeth to Plymouth, on board the 'Kinfauns Castle', Oct. 13-Nov. 6. 1882'. The papers include an account of Gordon's theory that the Seychelles were the site of the Garden of Eden, illustrated with sketches and accompanied by four page of drawings. There are also five pages of photocopies of letters from General Gordon, 10 November 1882 (Southampton), 28 January 1883 and 13 March 1883 (Jerusalem).

The provenance of the collection is unknown.

Please cite as Cambridge University Library: Royal Commonwealth Society Library, Religious writings of Charles Gordon, RCMS 16

The R.C.S. Manuscripts Collection includes other material relating to General Gordon, RCMS 113/11 and 188.

MSS Addenda, vol. I. Indexed

This collection level description was created by RAS using information from the original typescript catalogue. The biographical history was compiled with reference to the entry on General Gordon in Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, eds, 'Dictionary of national biography', vol. VIII (London, 1908), pp. 169-176.

The location of the original papers is not known.