Qualla: Statue of General Gordon https://qualla.com/statue-of-general-gordon en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:15 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/statue-of-general-gordon-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Statue of General Gordon https://qualla.com/statue-of-general-gordon Statue of General Gordon: Introduction https://qualla.com/statue-of-general-gordon/ Photo credit Andrew Wood, CC BY-SA 2.0. He is leaning into thought. The bronze figure on the Victoria Embankment stands a little larger than life, dressed in army uniform with a Bible in one hand and a cane in the other, his head propped on his raised right palm as if listening for something just out of earshot. His left foot rests on a broken cannon. The pose is unusual for a Victorian war memorial - not heroic, not commanding, just contemplative - and that was the choice of the sculptor Hamo Thornycroft, prompted by a specific request from the dead man's brother. Sir Henry Gordon wrote to Thornycroft in 1887 asking him to minimise the military character of the statue and to emphasise instead Charles Gordon's strength of mind, love, kindness and affection. The bronze that resulted captures perhaps the only Victorian war hero whose family wanted him remembered for gentleness.

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Image: Andrew Wood | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/statue-of-general-gordon-wp/gcpv-statue-of-general-gordon-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Statue of General Gordon: Khartoum, January 1885 https://qualla.com/statue-of-general-gordon/ Photo credit Eluveitie, CC BY-SA 3.0. Charles George Gordon was the kind of man Victorian Britain wove into myth. A Major-General of the Royal Engineers, he had fought in the Crimean War, fortified the Thames defences at Gravesend, led the Ever Victorious Army during the Taiping Rebellion in China - where he won batt...

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Image: Eluveitie | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/statue-of-general-gordon-wp/gcpv-statue-of-general-gordon-khartoum-january-1885.mp3 0:06 2 full Statue of General Gordon: From Trafalgar Square to the Embankment https://qualla.com/statue-of-general-gordon/ Photo credit Dan Bull, CC BY-SA 3.0. The completed statue was unveiled in Trafalgar Square on 16 October 1888, without a formal ceremony. It stood halfway between the two fountains, atop an 18-foot pedestal that lifted Gordon's contemplative figure above the heads of the crowd. There it remained for fifty-five years...

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Image: Dan Bull | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/statue-of-general-gordon-wp/gcpv-statue-of-general-gordon-from-trafalgar-square-to-the-embankment.mp3 0:06 3 full Statue of General Gordon: The Inscriptions Around the Stone https://qualla.com/statue-of-general-gordon/ Photo credit Detroit Publishing Company, Public domain. The Portland stone plinth carries the basic facts. CHARLES G. GORDON C.B. MAJOR-GEN. ROYAL ENGINEERS reads the front. KILLED AT KHARTOUM XXVI JANUARY MDCCCLXXXV follows beneath. Walk slowly around the base and the other inscriptions trace the arc of Gordon's career: CRIMEA 1855 t...

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Image: Detroit Publishing Company | Public domain

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/statue-of-general-gordon-wp/gcpv-statue-of-general-gordon-the-inscriptions-around-the-stone.mp3 0:06 4 full Statue of General Gordon: Brothers in Bronze Across the World https://qualla.com/statue-of-general-gordon/ Photo credit WFan, CC BY-SA 4.0. The London statue is not the only one. An identical Thornycroft casting was installed in 1889 at Gordon Reserve in Melbourne, on a triangle south of the Victorian Parliament House, facing the Old Treasury Building. It still stands on its original tall pedestal, the one London sur...

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Image: WFan | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/statue-of-general-gordon-wp/gcpv-statue-of-general-gordon-brothers-in-bronze-across-the-world.mp3 0:06 5 full Statue of General Gordon: The Quiet Man on the Embankment https://qualla.com/statue-of-general-gordon/ Photo credit Ricardalovesmonuments, CC BY-SA 4.0. Stand in front of the London statue today and the figure feels strangely small. The shortened plinth puts Gordon close to street level, his bronze face only a little above the heads of the office workers walking past from Westminster toward Embankment Tube. The Thames flows behin...

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Image: Ricardalovesmonuments | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/statue-of-general-gordon-wp/gcpv-statue-of-general-gordon-the-quiet-man-on-the-embankment.mp3 0:06 6 full