Mary Augusta Blunt

From the Wikipedia page of her brother, Gen. Charles Gordon, of Khartoum:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_George_Gordon

In 1843, (Charles) Gordon was devastated when his favorite sibling, his sister Emily died of tuberculosis, writing years later "humanly speaking it changed my life, it was never the same since."[4] After her death, her place as Gordon's favorite sibling was taken by his very religious older sister Augusta, who nudged her brother toward religion.[5]

Gordon often said that he wished he had been born a eunuch, which would suggest that he wanted to annihilate all of his sexual desires, indeed his sexuality altogether.[74] Together with his sister Augusta, Gordon often prayed to be released from their "vile bodies" which their spirits were "imprisoned" in so that their souls might be joined with God.[75]

Gordon remained in the Equatoria province until October 1876. Gordon quickly learned that before he could establish stations to crush the slave trade that he would have to first explore the area to find out where the best places for building stations.[100] A major problem for Gordon was malaria, which decimated his men, and led him to issue the following order: "Never let the mosquito curtain out of your sight, it is more valuable than your revolver".[100] The heat greatly affected Gordon as he wrote to his sister Augusta: "This is a horrid climate, I seldom if ever get a good sleep".[99]

The intensely religious Gordon had been born into the Church of England, but he never quite trusted the Anglian Church, instead preferring his own personal brand of Protestantism.[111] In his worn out state, Gordon had some sort of religious rebirth, leading him to write to his sister Augusta: "Through the workings of Christ in my body by His Body and Blood, the medicine worked. Ever since the realization of the sacrament, I have been turned upside down".[124] The eccentric Gordon was very religious, but he departed from Christian orthodoxy on a number of points. Gordon believed in reincarnation. In 1877, he wrote in a letter: "This life is only one of a series of lives which our incarnated part has lived. I have little doubt of our having pre-existed; and that also in the time of our pre-existence we were actively employed. So, therefore, I believe in our active employment in a future life, and I like the thought."[125] Gordon was an ardent Christian cosmologist, who also believed that the Garden of Eden was on the island of Praslin in the Seychelles.[126] Gordon believed that God's throne from which He governed the universe rested upon the earth, which was further surrounded by the firmament.[11]

Many of Gordon's papers were saved and collected by two of his sisters, Helen Clark Gordon, who married Gordon's medical colleague in China, Dr. Moffit, and Mary, who married Gerald Henry Blunt. Gordon's papers, as well as some of his grandfather's (Samuel Enderby III), were accepted by the British Library around 1937.[219]

Statues were erected in Trafalgar Square, London, in Chatham, Gravesend, Melbourne (Australia), and Khartoum. Southampton, where Gordon had stayed with his sister, Augusta, in Rockstone Place before his departure to the Sudan, erected a memorial in Porter's Mead, now Queen's Park, near the town's docks.[227]

Footnotes:

• 4. Faught p. 3
• 5. Faught p. 3-4
• 11. Judd, Denis. "General Charles George Gordon". The British Empire.
• 74. Nutting, 1967 p. 319.
• 75. Farwell. 1985 p.114
• 99. Faught p. 49.
• 100. Faught p. 48.
• 111. Perry, 2005 p. 172.
• 124. Perry, 2005 p. 172-173.
• 125. Chenevix Trench, 1978 p. 128
• 126. Linda Colley, Ghosts of Empire by Kwasi Kwarteng – review, The Guardian, 2 September 2011. Accessed 3 September 2011.
• 219. "Gordon, Charles George (1833–1885) Major General". National Archives.
• 227. Taylor, 2007 p. 83–92

References:

• Chenevix Trench, Charles (1978). Charley Gordon, An Eminent Victorian Reassessed. London: Allan Lane. ISBN 0-7139-0895-5.
• Farwall, Bryon (1985). Eminent Victorian Soldiers: Seekers of Glory. W.W. Norton, New York. ISBN 0393305333.
• Faught, C. Brad (2008). Gordon Victorian Hero. Dulles, Potomac. ISBN 978-1-59797-145-4.
• Nutting, Anthony (1967). Gordon: Martyr and Misfit. Reprint Society.
• Perry, James (2005). Arrogant Armies: Great Military Disasters and the Generals Behind Them. Edison: Castle Books. ISBN 978-0785820239.
• Taylor, Miles (October 2007). Southampton: Gateway to the British Empire. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 1845110323.