ABSTRACT
Published after his death (January 1885) in June of that year, the Journals of Gordon proved to be one of the memorials to his life and the mechanism for the making of a martyr. They were reprinted as a cheap edition after his death was avenged by Kitchener in the mid-1890s and The Times noted that they would be read by ‘the whole of the English-speaking races of the world’. The journal was kept by J. Donald Hamill Stewart and then continued by Gordon until 14th December 1884. They were taken out of the Soudan to London, where they were received by Gordon’s brother, Sir Henry William Gordon. He decided that they should be published and edited by Alfred Egmont Hake, (Gordon was a first cousin of Hake’s father). There was some controversy here, as the British government did not want them to appear. They cast Gladstone in a poor light, Hake accusing him of failing to send relief forces. As a supporter of the Conservative party, Hake was sponsored by it (largely as a result the efforts of Richard Middleton, the Conservative party agent) to tour the country promoting the journals and added to the problems facing Gladstone in the mid-1880s.
