Gordon, IH

Major Ivan Hugh Gordon

Hugh was born on May 8th 1880, and spent several years in Germany, being for a time a pupil in Heidelberg. After returning to England he joined the College shortly after his thirteenth birthday. He was a pupil for four and a half years, leaving at the end of 1897 in order to attend Sandhurst, from where he passed out after two years and was gazetted to the Indian Army Staff Corps in January 1900. The following year, by now in India, he was attached to the 56th Punjabi Rifles, with whom he was involved in operations against the Waziris on the North West Frontier. During this period, in 1902, he was promoted to Captain, and subsequently, in 1909, to Major. In 1907 he was married to Hilda Widdrington, with whom he had two children, one of whom, a son, died in infancy.
When war was declared in 1914 Hugh was attached to the Maharajah of Kapurthala’s Infantry, with whom he went to German East Africa that October, and was involved in a series of small engagements. At this time he also suffered fairly seriously from malaria, spending several stretches of time in hospital. In 1915 he was promoted once more to Major and put in charge of the lines of communication stretching over 500 miles, a role in which he was often forced to use his knowledge of German to act as an interpreter during issues with the local inhabitants. On September 2nd 1917 he was shot dead whilst serving near the Sanga River; he was survived by his widow and their surviving daughter.