Sir Charles Alexander Gordon

author

Sir Charles Alexander Gordon

1821–1899

A 19th-century army surgeon and prolific medical writer, he turned decades of service in India, West Africa, and Europe into detailed books about military medicine, public health, and life across the British Empire. His work mixes firsthand experience with a strong interest in sanitation and the prevention of disease.

1 Audiobook

Recollections of Thirty-nine Years in the Army Gwalior and the Battle of Maharajpore, 1843; the Gold Coast of Africa, 1847-48; the Indian Mutiny, 1857-58; the expedition to China, 1860-61; the Siege of Paris, 1870-71; etc.

Recollections of Thirty-nine Years in the Army Gwalior and the Battle of Maharajpore, 1843; the Gold Coast of Africa, 1847-48; the Indian Mutiny, 1857-58; the expedition to China, 1860-61; the Siege of Paris, 1870-71; etc.

by Sir Charles Alexander Gordon

About the author

Trained as a physician and later known as Sir Charles Alexander Gordon, he served as an army surgeon and rose to the rank of Surgeon-General. Records from the National Portrait Gallery identify him as an army surgeon, and library and archive listings connect him with a long career in military medicine and public health.

Gordon wrote extensively about the health of soldiers and the conditions they lived in. His books include Army Hygiene, Life on the Gold Coast, and Recollections of Thirty-nine Years in the Army, reflecting service and observation in places such as India and West Africa as well as broader questions of sanitation, hospitals, and disease prevention.

He is remembered less as a novelist than as a practical medical author whose work captured the realities of imperial service in the 1800s. For listeners interested in memoir, colonial history, or the early development of military and tropical medicine, his writing offers a direct window into that world.