The British mercenary tradition: The Middle East

Abstract

The two figures who captured the public imagination above all others in the course of Queen Victoria’s long reign were those of the missionary-explorer David Livingstone and the Christian soldier General Charles Gordon whose death at Khartoum in January 1885 set the whole nation grieving. On two notable occasions in the course of his colourful career Gordon served a foreign power and though his job was described in other terms he was in fact a mercenary. In the first instance he was given leave of absence by the British Army according to an Order in Council which permitted army officers to take temporary service under the Emperor of China. In China Gordon was not an adventurer like other Englishmen serving the Emperor at that time but under orders from the War Office: ‘Although on loan to the Chinese government he remained a British officer, conscious that he represented the Crown while loyally serving China.’1 Such service, a temporary attachment to a foreign power with permission to take extended leave from his regular military employment, has been the pattern for many British officers until recent times. Gordon distinguished himself as the leader of the Ever Victorious Army of the Chinese Emperor, helping to put down the Taiping rebellion and in the process winning the sobriquet by which he was known thereafter of ‘Chinese’ Gordon.KeywordsForeign PowerArmy OfficerMilitary SurveyPolitical AdviserBritish OfficerThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.