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Major-General Sir (John) William Gordon KCB (1814 –- 8 February 1870) was a British Army officer and Inspector-General of Engineers. Gordon obtained a commission in the Royal Engineers in 1823 and served in the United Kingdom, North America and Bermuda before the outbreak of the Crimean War. Due to casualties during the Siege of Sevastopol, he was temporarily commanding the army's Royal Engineers contingent. He was brevetted three times during the war, from Captain to Colonel, became a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) and received the nickname "Old Fireworks" for coolness under fire. Later in the siege he was wounded, being shot in both arms, and returned to the United Kingdom. After the war he served with the Royal Horse Guards, commanded the defensive works at Plymouth and briefly commanded engineers in Canada when British involvement with the American Civil War became a possibility. During this period he was an appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB), promoted to Major General and became a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. In 1869 he was appointed the Inspector-General of Engineers, the head of the Corps of Royal Engineers. However, in 1870 Gordon committed suicide, attributed to insanity brought on by his wounds from the Crimean War, in Westward Ho!, Devon while visiting family. ==Early life== Gordon was born in 1805, the eldest son of Colonel Thomas Gordon of Harperfield, Lanarkshire, N.B. The estate came to him while still young on his father's death, and through his mother, Miss Nisbet of Carfin, niece of Andrew, last Earl of Hyndford, he inherited Carfin and Maudslie Castle. From a private school at Bexley he passed into the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and obtained a commission in the Royal Engineers on 1 December 1823.〔 He passed the first twenty years of his service at various stations at home and in North America. On his promotion to Captain in July 1845 he was appointed to command the 1st company, Royal Engineers, which he took shortly afterwards to Bermuda; he remained there six years.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John William Gordon」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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