Sir Thomas Edward Gordon (1832, Aberdeen - 1914) was a Scottish soldier, diplomat, and traveler. A British Army officer, he fought in India, served as a diplomat in Tehran, and travelled across the Pamirs. These days he is primarily remembered as an author of several books about the India, Persia, and Central Asia of the 19th century.
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Gordon was born on 12th January 1832 in Aberdeen and was a twin son of Captain William Gordon (1788-1834) of the 2nd Queen’s Royal Regiment. His father served in the Peninsular War in Spain, and was married at Santarem, in 1818, to Marianna Carlotta Loi, daughter of Lois Congalvea de Mello, a Spanish government official in the province of Estremadura.
Alongside his twin brother, Sir John James Hood Gordon, Thomas entered the British Army, joining the 29th (Worcestershire) Regiment of Foot on 21st August, 1849. He served in the Indian Mutiny campaign of 1857-1858. Later he became Military Attaché and Oriental Secretary to the British Legation in Tehran. During his visits to Persia Gordon decided to publish an account of his journey with the intention of displaying, through his observations and illustrations, evidence of the "progress and improvement" he found. In 1896 his work, Persia Revisited, was published.
He died in 1914.
He was also a painter, perhaps the first European to paint the landscapes of certain remote locations of the Pamirs.[1]
T.E. Gordon's twin brother, general John James H Gordon (1832-1904), served alongside him. J.J. wrote "The Sikhs".
T.E. Gordon was married to Lady Ella Gordon.