Major Archibald Alexander Gordon alias Major Gordon (3 September 1867 – 12 August 1949), was a British officer who served as attaché to the Military Household of King Albert I of Belgium during World War I. During his service he received the nickname Major Gordon. He was the younger brother of Colonel William Eagleson Gordon of the Gordon Highlanders, who was awarded the Victoria Cross.
Gordons military career includes service in the Royal Company of Archers and was instrumental in the creation of the 9th Royal Scots. Other careers include Honorary Secretary to the Franco-Scottish Society and Private Secretary to the 4th Duke of Wellington.
Early life
Being a descendant of the Irish Gordons of Ballee and Ballyskeagh, Archibald Alexander Gordon was born in Bridge of Allan, Scotland on 3 September 1867, the second son of Dr William Eagleson Gordon and Emily Marianne Dick. His mother was the youngest daughter of Archibald and Isabelle (né Mackenzie) Dick. His uncle was Colin Mackenzie, 5th of Mountgerald (1802-1837).
Gordon was the younger brother of William Eagleson Gordon VC, older brother of Robert Aaron Gordon, brother of two sisters: Emily Mckenzie and Helen Isabelle Gordon. He also had a (half) brother, George Freer (Jr), on his mother's side. He studied at Stanley House School, Bridge of Allan; Edinburgh Collegiate School; and the University of Edinburgh. In 1889 he made a world tour and met the famous U.S. Army general, William Tecumseh Sherman in New York. After visiting Jamaica, the land of his grandfather, he returned homewards with the S.S. S.S. City of Paris and expierenced it's disaster in March 1890.
In 1892 he married Lizzie Maude Smith (24 January 1872 – 13 July 1929), twin daughter of Major General Edmund Davidson-Smith (27 June 1832 – 8 September 1916), formerly Assistant Adjutant General of the Dublin district. The couple had three children.
William Hyde Eagleson Gordon (23 August 1893 – 30 September 1915), twin of Archibald George Ramsay Gordon. He studied at Haileybury College and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge and enlisted in the army with the Gordon Highlanders in 1914 as a Temporary-Lieutenant. He landed in France on 5 May 1915 and served as a lieutenant in the 8th Battalion, Gordon Highlanders. On 27 September 1915, William became mortally wounded during the Battle of Loos and suffered from a head wound. He succumbed to his wounds on September 30, 1915, in Etaples Military Hospital at the age of 22. He is buried in the Etaples Military Cemetery in Pas-de-Calais, grave I.B.17. Lieutenant William Hyde E. Gordon is mentioned on the Sidney Sussex College – Ante Chapel Memorial and the Haileybury College memorial.
Archibald George Ramsay Gordon (23 August 1893 – 26 December 1893), a twin with his elder brother. Edmund Robert Adam Gordon (25 March 1896 – 5 October 1932) enlisted in the 7th Seaforth Highlanders as a temporary Lieutenant and arrived simultaneously with his brother in France. He survived the Battle of Loos but was later diagnosed with jaundice and neurasthenia. Major Gordon, who had planned to visit him on the front, learned his son was at the infirmary. He visited five field ambulances before he found out that his son had already been evacuated to a railhead and placed in a Red Cross train bound for England. Edmund recovered from his illness and later returned to the front. On 25 August 1917, Major Gordon was informed that Edmund was wounded and suffered from a leg wound and a severe hand wound. He was hospitalised in the General Hospital N°8 at Rouen and later taken to a hospital in Brighton, where Major Gordon visited him. Over time, Edmund's condition worsened, and he had to undergo several operations, resulting in the amputation of some of his fingers and a part of his hand. Edmund returned afterwards to the front and survived the war but struggled with severe health issues for the remainder of his life. In 1926 he married Vivienne Roberts in Kensington, and the couple had their firstborn, Peter. Peter Gordon tragically died in his infancy. Edmund's condition worsened, and he was now diagnosed with Tuberculosis. He died of this disease on 5 October 1932 and was buried next to his son at North Sheen Cemetery in Kew, London. He is mentioned on the Haileybury College memorial. Major Gordon's godson was Denys Lowson, Lord Mayor of London from 1950 to 1951. In June 1951 Lowson was made Baronet. He died on 10 September 1975.
Two of Major Gordon's cousins were Colonel Ronald Eagleson Gordon MC of the Royal Engineers and Captain Colin Eccles Dick of the 2nd Royal Irish Fusilies who died in the Second Boer War during the Battle of Blood River Poort. Colin is commemorated on a memorial in Vryheid, South Africa.
Honorary Secretary for the Franco-Scottish Society
After the death of his son Archibald, Major Gordon moved his family to his mother's home in Edinburgh. There his wife, who suffered a series of health problems after childbirth, could get specialised care. While looking for a job in Edinburgh, Major Gordon as offered the position of honorary secretary of the newly established Franco-Scottish Society. He accepted it. The Franco-Scottish Society aimed to foster contacts between the French and the Scots and to develop their traditional friendship enshrined – since at least 1295. A year after its establishment in 1895, the French branch: Association Franco-Ecossaise got established in France. In the summer of 1897, the French branch planned its first visit to Edinburgh, where the Scottish branch made all preparations. The Marquess of Lothian (head of the Royal Company of Archers) en Lord Reay (Mayor of Edinburgh) permitted to use Banqueting Hall in Aldershot for the banquet. This turned it into a historical event as Banqueting Hall was last used during the coronation of Charles I in 1625. After the successful event, the members of the French branch presented Major Gordon with a piece of silver as a token of their gratitude. On August 4, 1898, Major Gordon was decorated with the "Chevelier de l’Ordre Nationale de la Légion d’Honneur" by the new elected French government of Félix Faure for his services in the Franco-Scottish Society. From the end of 1903 until the summer of 1904, Major Gordon took part in the organisation of the conference of the Institute of International Law upon the request of Lord Reay. Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace, former director of the foreign department for The Times and Friedrich Fromhold Martens, Imperial Russian diplomat and lawyer, were allotted to stay with Major Gordon. In late autumn, Major Gordon guided the German Duke Johann Albrecht zu Mecklenburg and his wife Princess Elisabeth Sybille of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach through Scotland during their seven-day stay. The quiach that was presented to Major Gordon by the Duke is kept by the Major A. A. Gordon Society. In 1906 Major resigned from the Franco-Scottish Society to take up his position as private secretary of the 4th Duke of Wellington in London.
Member of the Royal Company of Archers
In 1896 Major Gordon became a member of the Scottish elite unit the Royal Company of Archers, the bodyguard for the British monarch during his or her stay in Scotland. The unit was commanded by Captain-General William Montagu-Douglas-Scott, 6th Duke of Buccleuch. The unit resides at Archers' Hall in Buccleuch street in Edinburgh. Behind the building lay the field of Hope Park, named after Sir Thomas Hope, creator of the archer's field. On February 25, 1899, three photographs of Major Gordon in his Royal Company of Archers uniform were published in Scottish Life. Major Gordon took part in the first state visit to Scotland by Edward VII and Queen Alexandra from May 11 to May 13, 1903.
The 9th Volunteer Battalion Highlanders, Royal Scots
Major Gordon was one of the co-founders who, with James Ferguson and Andrew Gordon, established the 9th Volunteer Battalion Highlanders, Royal Scots (Lowland Division).He was commissioned a Captain on 6 August 1900 and became the first commanding officer of A-Company (the captain A. A. Gordon Cup was named in his honour). During the procession of the coronation of Edward VII in 1902, he stood at the head of his battalion. He was promoted to major on 7 January 1905 and was appointed Brigade-Major in the same year. In May 1906 he was assigned to the Black Watch for a month after completing the Transport Course and the Course of Military Equitation at Aldershot. During his time with the regiment, he became good friends with Captain – later Lt. Colonel – James H. Clark, who was the commanding officer of B-Company and who later became the second commanding officer of the battalion when Lt. Colonel James Ferguson resigned his commission in 1904. Lt. Colonel Clark got killed in the First World War during the second battle of Yper on 10 May 1915 while commanding the 9th Argyll and Sutherland battalion. During his stay in the 9th Royal Scots, he had the pleasure to meet with General Sir Archibald Hunter DSO. The general got him involved in the establishment of the Queen Victoria School in Dunblane for which he received the Royal Victorian Order – 4th Class. Major Gordon resigned his commission with the 9th Royal Scots on 26 May 1906 to take up his duties as private secretary to Arthur Wellesley, 4th Duke of Wellington from 1906 onwards.
Private Secretary to the 4th Duke of Wellington
Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace, Major Gordon's guest during het conference for the Institute of National Law, received in autumn 1905 the task to find a private secretary for the 4th Duke of Wellington, Arthur Charles Wellesly. Sir Wallace contacted Major Gordon and asked him to agree that his name would go forward. Major Gordon was honoured and agreed. A few days later, he was invited to stay with the Duke and his family at the estate of Ewhurst Park, near Bastingstoke. After a short stay, Major Gordon received the job and was told to take up his position at Apsley House in London at the beginning of February 1906. At Apsley House, Major Gordon mainly took part in the social duties of the Duke and his wife, the Duchess Kathleen Emily Bulkeley Williams. Major Gordon also curated the Duke's museum and the Waterloo Gallery. During his early days at Apsley House, the Duchess organised a Royal Ball in the gallery where Edward VII and Queen Alexandra were the guests of honour together with some thirty other British and foreign royal family members.
One day at Apsley House, Major Gordon heard that the Duchess was giving a tour through the house. Suddenly she opened his room's door and said: "And this is Mr Gordon's room." Simultaneously the Princes and princess (George V's children) entered the room. Major Gordon showed them the Wellington Dispatches and the Duchess asked him to guide the children to the strongroom to see the massive silver collection. Major Gordon took an oil lamp and descended to the basement. Beneath Apsley House lies London Underground and every train that drove by could be heard in the basement. Once the first train passed, princess Mary suddenly grasped Major Gordon's hand for comfort.