Alexander Theodore Gordon

Alexander Theodore Gordon (11 May 1881 – 6 March 1919) was a British Conservative politician. He was elected Member of Parliament for Aberdeen and Kincardine Central in the 1918 General Election, but died two months later.

He had served in the Boer War, and during the First World War was head of the Forage Department of the War Office in Scotland, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He was also an expert breeder of Shorthorn Cattle.

At the 1918 General Election, Gordon won the new constituency of Aberdeen and Kincardine Central by a majority of 638 votes over the Liberal candidate.^[1]

He never spoke or voted in Parliament, but shortly before his death he was appointed a member of the House of Commons Scottish Standing Committee.

Gordon died, at Newton Insch, Aberdeenshire aged 37, from heart failure after suffering from influenza, just over two months after his election. He thus became one of the shortest-serving MPs in history. It is likely that Gordon was a victim of the 1918 flu pandemic. At the subsequent by-election Murdoch McKenzie Wood gained the seat for the Liberals.

See also

List of United Kingdom MPs with the shortest service

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs