GALLANT GORDONS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16493, 7 March 1914, Page 15

GALLANT GORDONS.

A WARLIKE FAMILY. (“Weekly Scotsman.”) Among distinctively Scottish patronymics that of Goraon holds a conspicuous place, though it is more a family name than a clan name like Grant or Mackintosh. The Gordons, indeed, were Lowland rather than Highland, but, all the same, they had many of the characteristics of the old clans. They were located for the most part in ono district, the north-east corner of Scotland—in Aberdeenshire and Banffshire chiefly. In early times they owned allegiance to the head of the family, although he does, not seem to have been designated chief or chieftain ; and, just like ordinary clansmen, they could bo relied upon to render service when summoned by the head, and to follow him unhesitatingly in feudal raid or national conflict. And, as happened in the case of most of the clans, offshoots of the leading family established themselves on the land, became individual proprietors, and created separate families, the general family concert—or “clannish feeling” in effect—still surviving, however, and continuing for long to be powerfully effective. OF BERWICKSHIRE ORIGIN. Particularly identified with the North as they are, the Gordons nevertheless are of Berwickshire origin, and there are still many of the name in the South of Scotland. The migration northward began in 1319, when Sir Adam Gordon, for service rendered to Robert the Bruce, was granted by the King a charter of the lands of. Strathbogie. A great-grandson of Sir Adam had two natural sons, “Jock,” of Scurdargue, . and “Tam” of Ruthven, who are traditionally reckoned the progenitors of the numerous and widely diffused Gordons. .From these two the bulk of the Aberdeenshire and Banffshiro Gordons are reputed to be descended—’they are all, in the purview of northern genealogists, either “Jock” or “Tam” Gordons.

The main lino of descent, however, was continued in the legitimate successors of Sir Adam, ono of whom, was created Earl of Huntly in the middle of the fifteenth century. The Earls (subsequently Marquises) of Huntly soon became very powerful, acuuirins

great territorial posessions, and holding sway over a vast number of vassal* ana dependants. COCK O’ THE NORTH. They so dominated the region of which Strathbogie is the centre that the titular representative of tho family lor the time being was styled " The Cock o’ the North,” while the traditional saying, "The Gordons hae the guidin’ o’t,” is strikingly suggestive of the potential influence they exercised. Able as well as masterful men, they were no mere overlords in tho district they directljr ruled, but played a prominent part in the tortuous politics of the troublous times in which they lived. The most notable of them was. tho fourth Earl, perhaps the greatest Scottish noble of his day, who kept princely state in his castle of Strathbogie, the sumptuous furnishings of which, we are told, shamed those of the royal palace. He was tho recognised head of the Catholic party in the North during the prolonged struggle between Queen Mary and tho Protestant Reformers, and so became ono of tho objects of John Knox’s fulminations. For several years ho was Chancellor of Scotland, but ho ultimately fell out of favour at the Court. Queen Mary may possibly have been influenced by tho suggestion of envious rivals of the Earl that “ the wings of the ‘ Cock o’ tho North’ should bo clipped.” At nnv rate, she and her former counsellor became estranged, and Huntly, in a last bold bid for his waning supremacy, engaged the forces of the Queen and Moray at Corrichio, near Aberdeen, in 1562, only to be defeated, and to lose hia own life on tho battlefield. Some eighty years later his grandson, the second Marquis or Huntly, was equally unsuccessful in opposing tho Covenanting forces under Argyle, and suffered for his royalism, being beheaded at tho Market Cross of Edinburgh in 1649. REVIVED FORTUNES. With the Restoration, however, the fortunes of the family revived. Ford Charles Gordon, a brother of the third Marquis, was created Earl of Aboyne, and his nephew, the fourth Marquis, was made Dtiko of Gordon; and the confiscated estates were also restored, the portion of them on Deeside—and a no considerable portion of them*—being assigned to the Earl of Aboyne. There were five Dukes of Gordon in succession, but, the most celebrated member of the ducal family was undoubtedly the fourth Duchess, tho brilliant and captivating Jane Maxwell. Tho dukedom expired with her son, the fifth Duke, who died in 1836. The title of Marquis of Huntly then devolved on his cousin, the fifth Earl of Aboyne, who became ninth Marquis,. whilo tho estates were inherited by his nephew, the fifth Duke of Richmond, the eldest son of Duchess Jano’s eldest daughter. The dukedom of Gordon was revived in 1876, being conferred by Lord Beaconsfield on the sixth Duke of Richmond, a Ministerial colleague. A FIGHTING RACE. The Gordons have been pre-eminently a fighting race. With the passion of combat in their veins, they took to the exercise of arms more kindly than to any other profession; and they possessed besides a zest for adventure that led many of them far afield, landing them often in singular, and occasionally in romantic situations. Dashing and gallant, bearing themselves jauntily, never depressed by untoward circumstances, and daring and even reckless in the face of danger, the members of the leading family were accorded the appellation of the " gay Gordons.” The qualities enumerated, however, have been manifested no less by all Gordons, and so the title has passed from the individual to the generality, a notable example of its modern and extended application being tho popular recognition of the splendid feat of the Gordon Highlanders regiment in scaling the heights of Daraai as the work of the " gay Gordons.” It was from their Border ancestry, doubtless, that the Gordons derived this predilection for "6turt and strife,” and when they turned northward the inherited tendency was none the less assiduously cultivated, the almost perpetual warfare, between Scotland and England affording ample scope for its development. Enthusiastic admirers of the Gordons would fain have it that Sir. Adam Gordon, the founder of the main line, fought at Bannockburn, but tho assertion is purely conjectural. His eldest son, however, was one of the leaders of the Scots army which was defeated by Edward 111. at Halidon Hill in 1333, while a great-grandson was killed at the battle of Homildon Hill in 1402. and another is credited with having been at Otterburn. Tbo Earls and Marquises of Huntly had all the martial, instincts of their progenitors. The.third Earl commanded ono of tho divisions of tho Scots army at Flodden, but escaped from that fatal field, though a younger brother fell with the flower of Scots chivalry ; and, as we have seen, subsequent members of the ennobled family were ready enough to have resource to arms when occasion arose. IN JACOBITE TIMES. If all the Dukes of Gordon did not display a similar readiness it was because of dubiety as to the side—Jacobite or Hanoverian—to be most advantageously espoused—a prudential regard for the consequences in which, at the time, the Gordons were by no means singular. The first Duke, trained in the Continental armies under Turerme and. the Prince of Orange, was a keen partisan of the Stuarts, and is best known to history by his defence of Edinburgh Castle in the interest of James 11. in 1689. His successor, the second Duke, however, acted a very equivocal part in the rising of 1715, and remained wholly quiescent during the ’45, and such Jacobite proclivities as remained in the family were manifested only by his son. Lord Lewis Gordon, who fought at Falkirk and Cnllodcn, and died in exile in France-—he is immortalised in the well-known Jacobite ballad, "Oh! send Lewie Gordon ha me.” The fourth Duke’s loyalty to the Hanoverian regime is unimpeachable, and he stands out conspicuous as a raiser of regiments. Besides a company for tho Fraser Highlanders and one for tho Black Watch, he raised no fewer than four regiments—two regiments of Northern Fencibles,. the regiment which was enrolled as the S9th Foot, and a fourth regiment, which, enrolled as the 92nd, is best known today as the Gordon Highlanders. This regiment, like the others, was recruited from the Gordon estates, and largely by the personal blandishments of the Duchess (Jane Maxwell), who rode to the country fairs in regimental jacket and Highland bonnet, and is said, us an extra inducement to men to "take Iho shilling,” to have added a kiss from her lips; but this embellishment of the story of her recruiting activity is rather discredited nowadays. The command of the regiment was given to the Marquis of Huntly (afterwards the fifth Duke), who accompanied it abroad at the beginning of the campaign against the French after the Revolution, and was severely wounded at Bergen-op-Zooiu. THE YOUNGER SONS. As has already been indicated, it was not the Gordons of the main line alone that- were imbued with the military spirit. Many other bearers of' the patronymic were also permeated by tho lighting instinct-, and they too distinguished themselves more in warfare than in anything else. As the earlier branches of the Gordon family spread and multiplied—" Tam,” of Rutliven, is said to liavo had eighteen sons, while fully a hundred distinct families of Gordons “derive” from one or other of the four sons of " Jock ” of Scurdargue—recourse to a military career became common. In the circumstances i of tho time it was inevitable, quit©

apart from any predisposition or inclination. Small estates in the then poor and undeveloped lands of Aberdeenshire and Banffshire were inadequate for the support of large families, and younger sons had therefore to turn themselves to. the only (or the chief) avocation available—that of arms. Op-

portunities of military employment at home were limited, but were plentiful abroad; and hence it is that we find many Gordons enrolled in the Scots Men-at-Arms in France and the boots Brigade in Holland, or engaged in the service of Gustavus Adolphus or (at a later date) of Peter the. Great. THE CALL OF COUNTR Y.

With the establishment of a standing army in our own country and the subsequent maintenance of troops in India, fresh outlets were furnished for ambitions or adventurous youths fired with military zeal; and the stream of military ability ana administrative capacity was diverted from Continental channels to those opened by the Home and Indian armies. The Gordons were well to the front in the new movements, and ever since they have responded in large numbers to tho call of patriotism or the inducements of a military career. Astounding, indeed, are some of the details of tho number of men that individual families have contributed to the Navy and Army. No fewer than 94 officers of the name of Gordon were descended from the second Earl of Aberdeen, for example. A Gordon family which farmed Croughly, in Banffshire, under the Dukes of Gordon, gave 28 descendants to the two services. The Hallhead Gordons contributed 19 officers —possibly more, for Adam Durnford Gordon, H.E.1.C.5., the father of Adam Lindsay Gordon, the Australian poet, wrote to the Cominnnder-in-Chief’s secretary in 1831:—"My father, grand-father, brother, six uncles, and all their sons, twenty of us, have all been brought up for the Army, and half of these have been killed or died on foreign service” ; not all of them were of the name of Gordon, however.

THEIR RECORD UNDER ARMS,

Interesting particulars of the services rendered by individual Gordons are given in a work ; "Gordons Under Arms,” recently issued by the Now Spalding Club of Aberdeen. It forms the third volume in an elaborate history of “ Tho House of Gordon ” which is being prepared by the club under tho editorial supervision of Mr John Malcolm Bulloch, an ardent “ Gordonologist”—to use a specially coined term with an obvious meaning. Tho two preceding volumes were devoted to genealogical and historical accounts of Certain Gordon families, but this one is based on totally different lines. What was aimed at was tho compilation of as complete a list as possible of persons of the name of Gordon (either alone or in hyphenated combination with other surnames) who were at any time comsioned officers, or warrant officers in the Navy, the Army (including the Militia, Volunteers and Territorial Forces), the troops of the East India Company, and the Indian Army, setting forth the career of each individual, and then to trace hi 6 genealogical connections. .In other words, the problem set came to this: Find out all the Gordons who may he classified roughly as " fighting Gordons,” and then find out to what families, they belonged. The necessary investigation involved very great labour in both directions, an enormous amount of patient and not always interesting research, and the expenditure of an infinitude of pains in piecing together information derived from a multitude of sources. Formidable as was tho task, however, it has been successfully and creditably accomplished, and that hv a lady too, Mrs Constancy Oliver Skelton. After eight years’ labour, first extracting names and careers from innumerable documents in the Admiralty, War Office, India Office and elsewhere, and then addressing herself to quite different material, she has produced a list of 2116 Gordons who have been " under arms” in one form or another, and has traced tho family origin of fully one-half of them. This is a very considerable achievement, and the results are of the utmost value, both genealogically and historically, for we have here a military record quite as well as a family one. THEIR ÜBIQUITY.

The most vivid impression derived from a perusal of the volume, particularly tho section dealing with services in the British and Indian armies, is the übiquity of the Gordons as figjiting men. They have "followed the flag” round tho world, from the swamps and forests of Canada and North America to the torrid plains of Hindustan, from the waters of the Nile to the kloofs and kopjes of South Africa. They have participated in Continental wars to maintain Britain’s position and prestige as a European Power, and they have shared, in the pioneer work of colonial expansion and the consolidation of the Empire. Wherever British troops have been engaged a Gordon lias taken part, and taken part valiantly, we may bo sure. Mon of the name served even in Marlborough’s campaigns, and were present at the battles of Blenheim and Malplaquet. Seven years after the former event a Gordon memorialised the authorities for a grant on account of his having " lost a leg and half of his thigh at the battle of Hqehstet (Blenheim), notwithstanding which lie has served ever since , fivo campaigns in Earl of Stair’s Regiment, and was shot through the other leg at the battle of Mons (1709).” The incident illustrates the bravery and tenacity of the indomitable Gordons. A Gordon fought at Fontenoy. and one was wounded at Minden. There were Gordons at tho siege of Quebec, one of them in command of a brigade; and they figure also in the siege of Ticondoroga and in the fighting during the American War of Independence. Numbers of them served in the Peninsular campaign. Sir Alexander Gordon, a brother of the Premier Earl of Aberdeen, was the Duke of Wellington’s A.D.C., and fell at Waterloo: curiously enough, a slight column in. his honour erected by bis relatives is the only distinctively British memorial on the battlefield, for the famous lion that surmount-s the mound has an international character, having been set up by the allies. THE CRIMEA AND MUTINY. Tho Crimean campaign had its due contingent of Gordons. Sir William Gordon of Earlstou was in the Charge of the Light Brigade, returning from that awful ride " into the Valley of Death” with five sabre wounds in tho head—"so terribly had he been hacked that the doctors said he was their only patient with his’head off.” The siege of Sebastopol was conducted by Sir John William Gordon, of the Royal Engineers—" Gordon of Gordon’s Batterywho becamo one of the heroes of the hour, and is declared to have contributed more to tho overthrow of the great fortress than any individual soldier of the allied armies. In tho Indian Mutiny many Gordons —just as did their fellowofficers without distinction of name or nationality-exhibited great bravery and devotion, alike in the trying circumstances of tho sieges of Lucknow and Cawnpora and in the prolonged compaign with the rebels that ensued; one of them was conspicuous for raising at Asirgarh a body of volunteers known as “ Gordon’s Volunteers,” and so saving the place from a threatened attack bv mutineers. But from the earliest time of its domination by tbo British, India had attracted Gordons, and numbers of them rose to a high position in its service. ; A surgeon of the name, for instance, 1 though taken prisoner by Hyder Ali early in liis career, and narrowly missing being killed in an attempt to escape, was subsequently in attendance! ou a son of tho Nabob of Arcot and his j family. Other Gordons also found their way

to the courts of native rulers, ivhert > their military instincts and training secured their speedy advancement. On# became a cavalry officer in Ranjil Singh’s army; another raised a regiment of cavalry for the Nizam of Hyderabad, designated in later years "Gordon’s Horse;” a third succeeded to tlie command of it; and a fourtil raised and oommanded the Ludhian# Regiment,, now the Ludhiana Sikhs. Service in the native States wae not without its dangers, of course, and a§ an illustration we liave the case of • Gordon officer murdered at the instigi* tion of the Nawab of Murehilabad. RECENT CAMPAIGNS. In the wars of recent and contemporary times Gordons have taken part ns prominently as in those of the past, younger men associating the family name with the several Egyptian campaigns, the "little wars” with Indian hill tribes, and, lost and greatest of all, the conflict with the Boers is South Africa. Numbers of Gordons have also been engaged in the cognate work of exploration, boundary marking and map drawing; particularly on the Northwest frontier of India; and in India, too, several have left tho army and taken to the work of civil administration. To enumerate the Gordons who have acquired distinction and high military rank in consequence would be a task of some magnitude, not to be attempted here. The name of "Chinese” Gordon will probably spring to most minds as that of greatest erainenoe—certain ly of gratefulest remembrance. Plenty others there are, however, who, if not bulking so prominently m the public eye, have no less faithfully and heroioallv done their duty and “gone to their God like a soldier;” and the long roll of honour of the Gordons furnishes many instances of brilliant achievement duly recognised and appropriately rewarded. IN THE NAVY. The Navy does not seem to have captivated the Gordons ae did the Army, for the number given as selecting a seafaring career does not reach two hundred, naval surgeons moreover constituting a considerable item in the total. The disproportion in tho relative numbers of soldiers, and sailors is reflected in tho biographies of the latter, which, on the whole, are much less interesting than those of their military fellows. The Gordon übiquity is not nearly so observable.• the family name does not occur so frequently in connection with important naval engagements as it does in the case of famous battles. On the other hand, distinction would appear to have gained more readily, either by achievement or promotion, for no fewer than ten Gordons attained to one or other of the four ranks of Admiral. This is exclusive of Admiral Sir John Scott Gordon, who was appointed to the command of the Scots’ fleet dispatched by James IV. to the assistance of Louis XII. of France; and also of Admiral Thomas Gordon, who withdrew from the Scots’ Navy owing to his Jacobite leanings, and, joining that of Peter the Great, rose to be Admiral and Governor of Kronstadt. Perhaps the most distinguished of tho ten admirals was Sir James Alexander Gordon, of the.Wardhou6e family. He was engaged in many naval actions during the war with France in tho early years of tho nineteenth century, capturing numerous prizes, and he won several victories in the war with America in 1814. He became Admiral of the Fleet, was made K.C.8., and was the last Governor of Greenwich Hospital, dying in 1869 at the venerable ago of ninety-one. Gf the other admirals, one was present at the bombardment of Algiers, 1816, and another at the battle of Navarino in 1827. A third served in the Baltic during the Crimean campaign, and was at the bombardment of Sveaborg; while a fourth took part in the siege operations at Sebastopol. A PICTURESQUE FIGHTER. The most picturesque of all the Gordon admirals must surely have been Admiral Charles Gordon, a natural son of the last Duke of Gordon, who, on retiring from active service, lived at Huntly, in the heart of the ducal domain—“ the Raws of Strathbogie ” it was originally called. "He was,” we are told, "a tar of the old school,' and known to everyone. He occupied a front seat in the parish church, and during sermon could oft’en be 6een taking a small round looking-glass from his pocket and examining the state of his tongue. No old tar passed through the town without calling on tho Admiral and tasting his Jamaica rum, the remark niade by Jack generally being—‘ That’s rare stingo, sir; by God, it bites 1’” Incidentally, tne story of a great naval disaster is recalled by the mention of the fact that Lord lewis Gordon, a sublieutenant in the Royal Navy (a brother of the present Marquis of Huntly), was lost in H.M.S. Captain, which capsized in a squall off Finisterre, 1870. A section of the book, compiled by Mr Bulloch, is devoted, to Gordons who served with foreign armies abroad, mainly on the Continent of Europe; and it is these Gordons that had the most adventurous and romantic careers, many , of them attaining commanding positions, such as, in all probability, they would never have gamed had they remained at home. Mr Bulloch remarks that “ a writer with the skill of a Burton could add many companion volumes to the ‘ Scot Abroad,’ ” and material for such an extension of that fascinating work is abundantly supplied in the details regarding tho 219 Gordons who oomo under the foreign classification. Burton dealt at length with Patrick Gordon of Auehleuchries, a noted General of Peter the Great, who was in the Russian Amy for. thirty-nine years, nn-.l whose success in his adopted land was such that “ he soon had a number o( his countrymen applying for posts.” Among them was Alexander Gordon of Auchintoul. Entering the Russian Army as a major, he was speedily promoted to a colonelcy, liis advancement, it is said, being due to. the Czar’s appreciation of the way in which lie stood up for Scotland at a. Russian wedding, when he " beat six men.” The Jacobite rising of 1715 brought him back to Scotland, and he commanded the clans at Sheriffmuir, but with tho collapse of the Chevalier 1 * cause he had to take refuge in France. Ja cobit ism was the means of giving several Gordon officers to Russia. Thomas Gordon, as has been mentioned, abandoned tho Scots Navy for the Russian, and among other recruits to the Russian Navy were a son of John Gordon of Glenbucket, the redoubtable Jacobite partisan, and a son of the laird of Oobairdy. The exodus of Gordons to the Continent began long before the days of either the Chevalier or Prince Charlie, however, for reasons already stated; but attractive, and even exciting, as are some of the careers outlined, it is not necessary to further follow the fortunes of bearers of the name. They have carried it far and wide, associating it with many a brave exploit and gallant feat of arms, and adding constantly to its honourable renown. And the Gordons of to-day may well be proud of the monumental record of the achievements of. their predecessors built up in this volume of tf Gordons Under Arms ’’—a monument, in a hardly less degree, of laborious and painstaking research.