Author Gordon Joseph Maria
Major General Joseph Maria Gordon CB (18 March 1856 - 6 September 1929), brigadier-general in the British army. Born in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, the son of Carlos Pedro Gordon, of Scottish descent, and Elena Maria Prendergast, of Irish descent. Gordon was born as Jose Maria Jacobo Rafael Ramon Francisco Gabriel des Corazon de Jesus Gordon Y Prendergast in Spain of Spanish born Scottish parents. His forbears had left Scotland in the 18th Century, it is presumed to escape religious persecution.[1] He was born in Jerez de la Frontera, in southern Spain, and Spanish was his mother tongue, but at age 7 his family returned to Scotland in 1867 when his father inherited the family estates. He then learnt to speak English, but he had an accent for many years, if not the rest of his life. He grew up in Great Britain where he attended the artillery and engineering military academy at Woolwich from 1874. At that time, while still a cadet, he met the future King of Spain, Prince Alfonso, who wa
...s in exile, attending the military school at Sandhurst. Prince Alfonso was proclaimed King of Spain in December 1874 and received the news while he was dining with Gordon in London. During that time Spain was engaged in a civil war, the Third Carlist War, and Gordon told Prince Alfonso that he had made plans to travel to northern Spain and join his enemy Carlos, Duke of Madrid with the object of gaining military experience. Prince Alfonso told Gordon that he could give him a letter of recommendation so he could join the royalist army, but Gordon declined. So Prince Alfonso traveled to Spain to be crowned king and, simultaneously, Gordon traveled to northern Spain on his own and joined the staff of the pretender don Carlos with whom he participated as observer in several battles favourable to the Carlists. He then returned to Woolwich to complete his military studies. In short time, Prince Alfonso was king of Spain and don Carlos was in exile in London, staying in the same hotel where Prince Alfonso had stayed and in the company of the same Gordon. After he obtained his commission, Gordon was stationed in Ireland, but after two years he resigned due to ill health and traveled to New Zealand with the hope of improving his health. In New Zealand he spent time as a drill instructor before moving to Melbourne and working as a journalist.[1] He unsuccessfully tried acting, publishing a newspaper and being a merchant before joining the police force in Adelaide, South Australia. He subsequently joined the Australian military as an instructor and went on to a successful military career, mainly in Australia, but also in England and South Africa where he participated in the Second Boer War. In South Australia he was appointed the first commander for Fort Glanville, the state's first coastal fortification. He was appointed on 8 September 1882 as a lieutenant and took charge of the fort and district. He was promoted to colonel in 1893 and became the Commandant of South Australia's military forces in the same year, succeeding Major General M F Downes. During his career he was awarded the Order of the Bath, made temporarily a Brigadier General and wrote the training manual for all South Australian garrison artillery.[1] In 1892 he married Eileen Fitzgerald and they had two children, Eileen and Carlos. He retired in 1914 and published his autobiography in 1921. He died of cancer in England in 1929.
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