The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-02-14 00:00:00

HORRIBLE MASSACRE at KHARTOUM.

GENERAL GORDON STABBED.

WOMEN AND CHILDREN MASSACRED.
The special correspondent of the Daily News fur 4
nished the following despatches to that journal on
Wednesday:

-
GARDUL, Feb. 8.
Unfortunately no doubt can now exist that General
Gordon was among those massacred when Khartoum
fell into the hands of the rebels.

Natives who escaped describe him as having been
killed in coming out of his house to rally his faithful
troops, who were taken by surprise.
They were cut down to a man.
For hours the best part of the town was the scene
of a merciless massacre. _

- Even the women and children were not spared.
All the notables, except the treacherous Pashas and
their followers, were put to the sword.
All this seemed too probable from the first, when
Sir Charles Wilson with his steamers went up as far
as Tutti, and saw beyond the trees that the island and
the streets of Khartoum and plains wera crowded
with dervishes with flaunting banners, and no friendly
sign was given from the palace or Egvjitian ensigu
was flying anywheN.

lad Gordon been holding the fortified monastry,
as some averred, he would certainly have fired some
shots as a signal to the steamers.
Gordon's other boats and nuggars were seen lying
beside the banks on the Omdurman side, which was
occupied by rebels.
In coming down both steamers got safely through
the Great Gate Cataract, but were wrecked on the
island just below.
Kashim Elmoos, Gordon's most trusted officer, was
true to the last, but doubts were entertained of the
iidelitypf Abdul Ahmed, the secuscl in command,
and he justified these by deserting.

The news afflicts England, and indeed all civilised
peoples in every part of the world, with a thrill of
rissionate grief. The great hero, who more than any
one of whom history bears record deserved the title
of the Christian Warrior, who realised the noble ideal
of Wordsworth's great poem, has perished in the town
which be came to relieve, and with the people whom
he was sent to rescue. For him, profound as
is the grief which will be felt, there is
scarcely need for a word of compassion. He has
met the death of a hero devoting himself to
that service of humanity to which his life was given
up. General George Charles Gordon came of a family
of soldiers, awl he has met the fate which every
soldier must think as possibly his own. He was born
at Woolwich on the 23rd January, 1833, and was the
fourth son of Lieutenant-General Henry William
Gordon, of the artillery. As his name implies,,
his family were Scotch. His great grandfather,
David Gordon, a Highlander, serving under Sir
John Cope, was taken prisoner after Cope's
defeat of Preston-pans, but, having been released by
the influence of the Duke of Cumberland, embarked
for America after the Battle of Culloden. His son,
also a British soldier, was with Wolfe in the battle on
the heights of Abraham which decided the fate of
Canada. He came back to England, married in
Northumberland, and had three sons. They, too, in
their turn became soldiers. The eldest, Captain
William Gordon, died while on duty at the
Cape; the second was Lieutenant A. W. Gor-
don, of the Engineers, and the third was
Lieutenant - General Henry William Gordon.
His wife, the mother of General Gordon, was the
daughter of Samuel Enderby, the eminent merchant,
the owner of the tea-ships on which the first blow for
American Independence was struck in Boston
Harbour, and the founder of the celebrated Enderby
whaling fleet. Of their five sons three entered the
military profession—Sir Henry W. Gordon, K.C.B. ;
Major-General S. Enderby Gordon, C. 8., of the Royal
Artillery; and the youngest of the five, the best
known of all, "Chinese Gordon.