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Philip Gordon, on the surface of things, led an unhappy life - widowed at a young age his second wife "'played the field" which led to a messy and public divorce.

Philip Cecil Harcourt Gordon, C.M.G.

Colonel, Royal Army Medical Corps – Anglo Boer War

- Queens South Africa Medal with clasps Cape Colony. Orange Free State & Transvaal to Major P.C.H. Gordon, R.A.M.C.

On the 28th September 1847 in Madras, India a 26 year old Philip Brodie Gordon, Articled Clerk in his father Charles’ Legal Practice, entered into the state of matrimony with a young girl of tender age, 16 to be exact, by the name of Charlotte Maria Mussita which event was to be the precursor to the birth in Kensington, London in 1864 of the subject of this report – Philip Cecil Harcourt Gordon.

Philip Gordon was destined for medicine and it was to the University of Edinburgh that he betook himself where he qualified as a Doctor of both Medicine and Surgery graduating in 1885 at the age of 21 and already on the payroll of the Royal Army Medical Corps – with whom he was to spend his entire working career. The London Gazette of 1 September 1885 confirms that Philip Cecil Harcourt Gordon, a Surgeon on probation, was to be a Surgeon with effect from 1 August of that year.

It was never young Gordon’s intention to practice medicine in England and he took passage to his native India at the first opportunity where he served with the R.A.M.C. as a Surgeon in the Burma conflict of 1885-1887 attached to No. 5 Burma Field Hospital earning for himself an Indian General Service Medal with the appropriate clasp and in the rank which he practiced. According to Hart’s List of 1908 Gordon was Mentioned in Dispatches for the Burma Campaign.

With peace having returned to the region for the foreseeable future a 24 year old Gordon found the time to wed 19 year old Wilhelmina Bronganga Constantia Hayter in Rangoon, Bengal on 4 August 1888. The first of a number of tragedies was now set to befall him – after a mere twenty six months of marital bliss 22 year old Constance (as she was known) passed away in Vellore on 26 November 1890 from Malarious Fever. Gordon, still so young was now a Widower.

Returning to England he met and married a Sarah Jane French at the Registrar’s Office in Newcastle upon Tyne in Northumberland on 29 December 1892 she was a 24 year old spinster from Newcastle and the daughter of a Clerk in Holy Orders although, as later events were to prove, she hadn’t inherited her father’s morals. At this point in time Gordon was a Surgeon Captain on the Army Medical Staff living at 48 Westmoreland Terrace, Newcastle.

Having found himself an “English Rose” Gordon and his wife returned to India where, at Kowgong on 17 August 1893, the first of their children, Cecil Philip George Gordon, was born. It doesn’t take much to calculate that Cecil was either born premature or he had been conceived out of wedlock possibly leading to the marriage of his parents.

On 5 July 1895 the second of Gordon’s children was born at Missouri – Dorothy Norah Brodie Gordon happened along to add to the ever-growing numbers in the family.

War clouds between the might of the British Empire on the one hand and the two Boer Republics at the southern tip of Africa on the other had been growing to the point where open conflict was a certainty. This finally erupted in October 1899 and the British forces were, initially, caught napping. They soon found that not only did they not have enough men on the ground to counter the Boer threat but that they were also in dire need of additional medical men to help out with the large number of wounded coming in as well as the other great leveller, the scourge of disease and, more especially in the case of the Boer War – Enteric Fever.

Gordon, now an experienced Surgeon, was called upon to do his bit and sailed for South Africa where, on arrival, he was placed on the strength of the No. 7 Bearer Company, 14th Brigade, VII th Division of the R.A.M.C. On 31 May 1901 he was transferred to the Race Course Hospital in Pretoria from No. 7 General Hospital which was in the same city. The Race Course Hospital had only 60 beds and had been used as a P.O.W. hospital by the Boers before the fall of Pretoria. At the time Gordon was there it was being used for the same purpose, the only difference being that the P.O.W.’s were now Boers themselves. Gordon must have been active in other hospitals as well earning the Cape Colony, Orange Free State and Transvaal clasps to the Queens Medal he was awarded.

The war over in May 1902 Gordon repaired to England where he would appear to have left Mrs Gordon. He hadn’t been home long before he was embroiled in controversy on the domestic front and one not of his choosing. On 11 October 1902 a petition for Divorce was filed in the High Court between Gordon, his wife and a respondent known as Claude William Hedley Bell. Mrs Gordon, so it emerged, had not been the dutiful wife one would expect of a clergyman’s daughter. Quite the contrary in fact but let us follow developments as they played out..

The Setting Down of the case was for the 12th November 1902 with the Decree Nisi effected on 16 March 1903 on which date it was found that Mrs Gordon and her co-respondent Mr Bell, had committed adultery together and were punished by the Jury who awarded damages of £2000 to Gordon.
The petition confirmed that Gordon was resident at 57 Elgin Crescent, Notting Hill, London and that there were then three children of the marriage aged 9, 7 and two years respectively – by name Cecil Philip George Gordon, Dorothy Norah Brodie Gordon and Claudina Constance Gordon.

It was also claimed that Sarah Gordon had “frequently committed adultery with Claude William Hedley Bell and that on the 10th day of August 1898 she had committed adultery with Bell at Clyde Bank House, Ranikhet, North West Province, India and that about July 1899 she had committed adultery again with Bell at Naini Tal, North West Province, India.

As if further confirmation was needed mention was made that “on the 10th, 11th and 12th days of May 1901” (Gordon would have been attending to the sick and wounded in South Africa) his wife had cohabited with Bell at the Holborn Viaduct Hotel in London.

The case proven, Gordon was granted a divorce as well as damages and the custody of his children. But the final word must sometimes come from the Fourth Estate! The Sheffield Daily Telegraph reported on 18 March 1903 under the headline Army Officer’s Divorce – Another Parentage Problem, as follows:

“In the Divorce Court yesterday, Sir F. Jeune and a common jury heard the case of Gordon vs Gordon and Bell. Which was a petition by Major Gordon of the Royal Army Medical Corps for the dissolution of his marriage on the ground of his wife’s misconduct with the co-respondent who was also an Officer in the Army.

It was heard that the parties were married on December 29th 1892 and that petitioner was shortly afterwards ordered to India, where he and his wife made the acquaintance of Captain Bell. Major and Mrs Gordon returned to England early in 1901, when the petitioner was sent out to South Africa. He left his wife on the most affectionate terms. On returning from South Africa the Major was ordered to India again. The respondent did not seem very pleased with this, and she said to the petitioner “I do not think we are quite getting on as well as we should do. I do not think we love each other as much as we did.” He said, “Why not? I love you as much as I ever did.” She said “Well, I do not love you.” She afterwards admitted that she loved the co-respondent, and that she had misconducted herself with him. She then signed a confession, in which she stated that she had stayed at the Holborn Viaduct Hotel, under an assumed name. There had been three children of the marriage, but the wife’s statement suggested that the youngest child was the child of Captain Bell.

This petitioner denied. He was absolutely convinced that the child was his.”

So ended Gordon’s second marriage albeit for altogether different reasons. We next pick up his trail in the 1911 Wales census. On this occasion he seems to have embraced single life as, at the age of 47, he is living alone at 71 Gwythem Street, Pembroke Dock. He is listed with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, a promotion having come his way.

Gordon appears to have played a role in the First World War earning a Mention in Dispatches (Gazetted on 24 December 1917) and in the rank of Colonel although no more medals were to come his way (he never left England) According to the London Gazette of 24 March 1919 Colonel Gordon was retained on the Active List for pay and to be supernumerary. He was also mentioned as having been awarded the honour of being a Companion of St Michael and St George. (C.M.G.)

Sadly Gordon’s life was almost at and end – a resident of 6 Raleigh- Avenue, St Helier, Jersey – he passed away on 4 May 1920 leaving a sizable estate of £6 251. He was also a shareholder of the Great Western Railway

Good Morning Rory........

Another fantastic piece of research.......

Thank You.....

Mike