Named after the popular Victorian General, Gordon Terrace runs alongside the railway and into Napier Terrace, which also owes its name to well-known nineteenth century figure.
Charles George Gordon was born in 1833 and hadn’t long turned twenty when he distinguished himself in the Crimean War. In 1960 he entered the service of the Manchu Government in China and three years later was placed in command of the “Ever-victorious Army”. This band of Chinese soldiers under European and American officers succeeded in suppressing the formidable Taiping Rebellion after some 33 encounters, earning the commander the new nickname of Chinese Gordon. From China, Gordon went to Sudan (1874) and three years later became governor of Sudan during which time – 1877-80 – he attempted to suppress slave trading.
Noted in England for his practical evangelical Christianity he was sent back out to the Sudan in 1884 to try and put down the Mahdi (the Muslim “Messiah” who had roused Sudan against Egyptian rule) Rebellion. Besieged in Khartoum for ten months in 1885 he was killed just two days before a relief force arrived from England.
