Add MS 87369-87370

Including a transcript of a letter from Gordon to Gen. Sir Gerald Graham, 26 March 1877, two letters from Alfred Egmont Hake, 1887-1888, and one letter from Gordon’s brother, 1890, to the recipient’s widow concerning the letters. They cover the greater part of Gordon’s career, including his home duties at Chatham and Gravesend and service in China, the Danubian Commission, Equatoria and the Sudan. A number incorporate his small ink sketches, maps and plans; a few letters are now incomplete through the loss of pages. In 1970 the letters were in a private collection in the USA; see John Pollock, Gordon: the Man behind the Legend (London, 1993), pp. xi-xii, 355, which states that photocopies were deposited at the Museum of the Royal Engineers, Chatham, after the writing of this biography, to join five letters from Gordon to Harvey already held there. Related material in the British Library includes the Moffitt (Add. MSS 51291-51312) and Bell (Add. MSS 52386-52408) collections, together with Gordon’s journals during the siege of Khartoum (Add. MSS 34474-34479). Purchased at Christie’s, 4 June 2008, lot 122.

Paper. ff. .