This school, General Gordon Elementary School, is named in honour of Major-General Charles George Gordon, CB. The school was built in 1912 on the corner of West 6th Avenue and Bayswater Street in Vancouver.
Major-General Charles George Gordon, CB (January 1833 – January 1885) was born in England and commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1852. Upon completion of his training, he was assigned to oversee the construction of fortifications in Wales but soon saw service in the Crimean War, returning to England in 1858. In 1860, he volunteered for service in China where he and his men were instrumental in putting down the Taiping Rebellion, regularly defeating much larger forces. For these accomplishments, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) and promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel before returning to England in 1864. With British Government approval, in 1873 he entered service with the Egyptian Army and returned to Europe in 1880. In the early 1880’s a serious revolt broke out in the Sudan and Gordon was sent to Khartoum in 1884 to secure the evacuation of loyal soldiers and civilians, and depart with them. After evacuating about 2,500 British civilians he retained a smaller group of soldiers and non-military men. Besieged by the rebel forces, Gordon organized a city-wide defense lasting almost a year that gained him the admiration of the British public, though not the government, which had not wished to become involved. Only when public pressure to act had become too great was a relief force, known as the Nile Expedition, reluctantly sent. It arrived two days after the city had fallen and Gordon had been beheaded.
