Sir Charles Alexander Gordon

author

Sir Charles Alexander Gordon

1821–1899

A Victorian army surgeon and medical writer, he drew on decades of service in India, China, Africa, and Europe to turn firsthand experience into vivid memoir and practical books on hygiene and military medicine.

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

Born in Aberdeen in 1821, he trained in medicine at Edinburgh and St Andrews before joining the Army Medical Department. Reference sources describe him as a British physician and later Surgeon-General in India, and his long career placed him in a wide range of imperial campaigns and postings.

He wrote extensively from that experience. His best-known work, Recollections of Thirty-nine Years in the Army, looks back on service across several conflicts and overseas expeditions, while other books focused on sanitation, surgery, climate, and public health.

That mix of active service and medical writing gives his work a distinct character: part memoir, part professional observation, and part record of how Victorian military medicine worked in practice. He died in London in 1899.