View source for Alexander Gordon (British Army officer, born 1786)

{{Short description|British staff officer}}
{{For|Gordon's contemporary namesake, hussar officer and journal writer |Alexander Gordon (British cavalry officer)}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}}
[[File:Monument Gordon 1815.jpg|thumb|Monument to the memory of Gordon on the Waterloo battlefield. The designer was [[John Buonarotti Papworth|John Papworth]]]]
[[Lieutenant-Colonel]] '''Sir Alexander Gordon''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|KCB}} (1786 – 18 June 1815) was a Scottish officer in the  British Army who was killed at the [[Battle of Waterloo]].{{sfn|Muir|2003|p=404–407}}{{efn|Not to be confused with [[Alexander Gordon (British cavalry officer)|Alexander Gordon]] (1781–1873), an illegitimate son of this man's grandfather who was also a British officer in the [[Peninsular War]].{{harv|Muir|2003|p=viii}}}} His correspondence was collated and published early in the early 21st century.
==Life==
Gordon was the third son of [[George Gordon, Lord Haddo]], son of [[George Gordon, 3rd Earl of Aberdeen]], and Charlotte Baird.<ref name="burke">{{cite book |title= [[Burke's Peerage|Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood]]|publisher=Burke's Peerage & Gentry |editor= Mosley, Charles |editor-link=Charles Mosley (genealogist) |edition=107 |year= 2003 |page=  11|ref=Burke |isbn=0-9711966-2-1}}</ref> His brothers were Prime Minister [[George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen]], and [[Robert Gordon (diplomat)|Sir Robert Gordon]]. He joined the military campaign against [[Napoleon]] during the [[Battle of Corunna]] in 1808 as the [[Aide-de-camp]] to his uncle, [[General]] [[Sir David Baird, 1st Baronet]]. He then became ADC to [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington]] for the next six years, until he was killed at Waterloo.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Balfour Paul |first1=James |title=The Scots Peerage  |volume=1 |page=93 |url=https://archive.org/details/scotspeeragefoun01paul/page/92 |access-date=13 May 2019 |location=Edinburgh, Scotland |publisher=David Douglas|year= 1904}}</ref>
==Military==
[[File:Portrait of the Duke of Wellington (Thomas Phillips).png|thumb|''[[Portrait of the Duke of Wellington (Phillips)|Portrait of the Duke of Wellington]]'' by [[Thomas Phillips]]. Gordon served under Wellington during the [[Peninsular War]] and [[Waterloo campaign]].]]
Gordon received brevet promotions to [[Major (rank)|Major]] and [[Lieutenant-Colonel]] as a reward for carrying to [[London]] [[Despatch rider|despatches]] announcing victory, first at the [[Battle of Corunna]] and then at [[Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo (1812)|Ciudad Rodrigo]]. After Bonaparte's exile to [[Elba]] in 1814, Gordon was made a [[Order of the Bath|KCB]]. He was mortally wounded at Waterloo while rallying Brunswickers near [[La Haye Sainte]], and died in Wellington's own camp bed in his headquarters during the night.
The following is an account by [[John Robert Hume]] who was visiting the Duke of Wellington after the Battle of Waterloo,
{{cquote|I came back from the field of Waterloo with Sir Alexander Gordon, whose leg I was obliged to amputate on the field late in the evening. He died rather unexpectedly in my arms about half-past three in the morning on the 19th. I was hesitating about disturbing the Duke, when Sir [[Charles Brooke-Vere]] came. He wished to take his orders about the movement of the troops. I went upstairs and tapped gently at the door, when he told me to come in. He had as usual taken off his clothes but had not washed himself.
As I entered, he sat up in bed, his face covered in the dust and sweat of the previous day, and extended his hand to me, which I took and held in mine, whilst I told him of Gordon's death, and of such of the casualties as had come to my knowledge. He was much affected. I felt tears dropping fast upon my hand and looking towards him, saw them chasing one another in furrows over his dusty cheeks. He brushed them suddenly away with his left hand, and said to me in a voice tremulous with emotion, "Well, thank God, I don't know what it is to lose a battle; but certainly nothing can be more painful than to gain one with the loss of so many of one's friends|||Dr Hume, Waterloo, 19th June, 1815|<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://crash.ihug.co.nz/~awoodley/waterlooseries/archives.html |title=Archived copy |access-date=23 September 2011 |archive-date=13 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120213001436/http://crash.ihug.co.nz/~awoodley/waterlooseries/archives.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>}}
Wellington wrote to Lord Aberdeen after his brother's death,
{{cquote|My Dear Lord,
You will readily give me credit to the existence of extreme grief with which I announce to you the death of your gallant brother, in consequence of a wound received in our great battle of yesterday.
He had served me most zealously and usefully for many years, and on many trying occasions; but he had never rendered himself more useful and had never distinguished himself more, than in our late actions.
He received the wound which occasioned his death when rallying one of the [[Brunswick-Lüneburg#History of the relationship to the British crown|Brunswick]] battalions which was shaking a little; and he had lived long enough to be informed by myself of the glorious result of our actions, to which he had so much contributed by his active zealous assistance.
I cannot express to you the regret and sorrow with which I look round me, and contemplate the loss with which I have sustained, particularly in your brother. The glory resulting from such actions, so dearly bought, is no consolation to me, and I cannot suggest it as any to you and his friends; but I hope that it may be expected that this last one has been so decisive, as that no doubt remains that our exertions and our individual losses will be rewarded by the early attainment of our just object. It is then the glory of the actions in which our friends and relations have fallen will be some consolation for their loss.|||Believe me &c Wellington, Bruxelles, 19th June, 1815|<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.wtj.com/archives/wellington/1815_06f.htm | title=Wellington's Dispatches: June 19th, 1815: To Earl Bathurst. 'Waterloo, 19th June' 1815. | publisher=War Times Journal | work=wtj.com | access-date=6 September 2011 | last=Wellesley | first=Arthur (1st Duke of Wellington)}}</ref>}}
==Bed==
The bed in which Gordon died is preserved at the [[Wellington Museum, Waterloo]].
==Monument==
{{Further|Gordon Monument}}
A monument to Gordon, in the form of a severed column, was erected on the battlefield in 1817.
==Bibliography==
*{{cite book|editor=Rory Muir|year=2003 |title=At Wellington's right hand: the letters of Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Alexander Gordon, 1808-1815 |edition=illustrated |publisher=Sutton |isbn=0-7509-3380-1}} "This volume comprises the letters written to his brother, Lord Aberdeen, later foreign secretary, and prime minister during the Crimean war, and Aberdeen’s replies,  ... They form an almost continuous narrative of the campaigns, and often reveal more of the thinking behind operations than do the duke’s own despatches".{{sfn|Mallinson|2004}}
==Notes==
{{notelist}}
{{Reflist|30em}}
==References==
*{{cite book|first=Rory |last=Muir |year=2003 |title=At Wellington's right hand: the letters of Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Alexander Gordon, 1808-1815 |edition=illustrated |publisher=Sutton |isbn=0-7509-3380-1}}
*{{cite journal|last=Mallinson |first=Allan |date=6 March 2004 |title=Book Reviews: Full, frank and fraternal |journal=The Spectator |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/2004/03/full-frank-and-fraternal/ }}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, Alexander}}
[[Category:1786 births]]
[[Category:1815 deaths]]
[[Category:Nobility from Aberdeenshire]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Aberdeenshire]]
[[Category:Scots Guards officers]]
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath]]
[[Category:British military personnel killed in action in the Napoleonic Wars]]
[[Category:House of Gordon|Alexander]]
[[Category:People of the Battle of Waterloo]]
[[Category:Younger sons of barons]]