R.E.GORDON | MAJOR A. A. GORDON SOCIETY

RONALD EAGLESON "RONNIE" GORDON

Ronald (Ronnie) Eagleson Gordon, the second son of Dr Robert Gordon of Stragallan, Northern Ireland, was born at Uniondale, South Africa, on 17 January 1889. He won the King's medal during his studies at Berkhamsted School and later at RMA Woolwich. Ronald has commissioned by the Royal Engineers on December 23, 1909, and was posted in India from 1912 in the Rawalpindi-Murree area. During the First World War outbreak, he was incorporated into the Railway Sappers and Miners in East Africa. He took part in the attempted landing on Tanga and later served with the 25 Company, where he constructed the new Voi-Moshi line connecting the Kenyan and German East African railways. The line was under constant local hazards and German mining attacks combined with the attacks of rhinos who attacked the engines and the construction camps. After his work on the Voi-Moshi line, he went to the Tanga-Moshi line to repair the line after the Germans had severely damaged it in their withdrawal. Ronald was later in command of repairing the central railway from Dar-Es-Salaam and constructing

a narrow-gauge line near the Mozambique border. For his services in the Great War, he was awarded the British Military Cross and was mentioned in dispatches. On July 13, 1918, he married Vera Newcomb at St. George's Cathedral in Cape Town. The couple later received one son and two daughters.

After the First World War, Ronald returned to India and served with the Sappers and Miners in the Khyber Pass during the Afghan War of 1919-1920. Afterwards, he became second in command of the Indian railways. He held this position till 1940, spending time as a Divisional Engineer with the North Western Railway in Lahore and Karachi. He carried out special studies of grain elevators for Sind and Punjab, the electrification of suburban railways in Bombay and Calcutta and the designing of large modern marshalling yards. From 1937 to 1940, he was senior government inspector of Railways for South India, with headquarters at Bangalore and later at Wellington, Nilgiris. After a short tour as commander of a railway group at Basra in 1940, he commanded the Transportation Training centre at Jullundur, where he remained until 1945. He retired in 1947 after overseeing a railway group at

Hamburg and took up residence at the Old Vicarage, Bekesbourne and later moved to the precincts of Canterbury.

Ronald Eagleson Gordon died peacefully in Canterbury on August 4, 1965.

THE FOREFATHER OF THE MAJOR A. A. GORDON SOCIETY

In the final years of Major Gordon's life, after losing his wife, his three sons and his grandchild, he donated all his life legacies to his cousin R. E. Gordon. This is because after Gordon's brother W.E. Gordon died in 1940 and the death of his nephew Colin in a racecar accident, no male heir left the bear the name, Gordon. So when all his nieces married, the name Gordon would become in vain. Ronald E. Gordon received his son Cyrill V. E. Gordon in 1922, so the name Gordon would be passed on to this side of the family. Major Gordon also saw that his nephews Cameron and Reginald Nicholson had no interest in the family's history, so he reached out to his cousin and made his first will in 1943. We do know that the responsibility was kept very high by Ronald, who held the entire legacy of Major Gordon until his death and passed it on to his son Cyril. However, Ronald had to deal later on with other family members who wanted pieces from the legacy of Major Gordon. He accomplished maintaining the majority of the collection. His son Cyril took upon the duty to preserve the entire collection for future generations and passed it on to his children(our current honourable members). The Gordon family has preserved the items and legacy of Major Gordon for more than 80 years and even displays the items in their current living area today.

Colonel R.E. Gordon's Wilkinson-Webley revolver is placed in it's presentation case. The grip holds a silver medaillion with the initials R.E.G.

GORDON FAMILY TREE

Peter of Ballee William of Ballyskeagh 1697 - ?

x x

Mary Boak Mary Ross

Aaron Gordon William Gordon (1738 - 1831) Margaret Gordon Mary Gordon

Margaret Boak (1744 - 14/11/1837)

Elizabeth(... - 1839) Aaron(1781 - 8/10/1844) Robert of Stragollen (1774- 7/9/1850) William(..- ./1/1837) Mary

X 19/04/1809

Ellen Eagleson (1786 - 21/09/1860)

George (22/6/1824 - 4/6/1896) William(15/5/1812 - 25/2/1814) Aaron (17/5/1814 - 1860) Matilda An (1/11/1817 - 1863) William E. (4/6/1831-15/1/1873) Elizabeth Robert (4/6/1823 - 23/7/1823) Margaret (5/5/1810 - 1816) Ellen (1827 - 1899) Robert (1830 - 1883)

X (1)Marion Hay Forbes

Robert (1855-1918) X (2) Emelia M. Dick

Marion Elizabeth Versfeld

William Eagleson Archibald Alexander Robert Aaron Emily Mackenzie Helen Isabelle

George Ronald Eagleson x x x x Margaret Katherine Blair Lizzie Maude Smith Graham H. W. Nicholson

Vera Newcomb

Cyriel Vivian Eagleson Colin Mackenzie Blair William "Bill" Hyde Eagleson Archibald G. R. Edmund Robert Adam Cameron Gordon Graham (Nicholson)