Charles George Gordon

(1833 - 1885)

Having distinguished himself in the Crimean War, during which he took part in the siege of Sevastopol, Charles George Gordon went as a captain to China in 1860 with a Franco-British force at the conclusion of the Second Opium War. He helped lead the imperial army in suppressing the Taiping Rebellion, earning him the nickname Chinese Gordon. Dispatched to the Sudan in 1884 to put down the Mahdist uprising, Gordon was besieged at Khartoum for 317 days before the city fell, his body speared and head severed.