Grand Masters of Scotland - Onondaga and Oswego Masonic ...

39. George (Duncan) Gordon, Marquis of Huntly, afterwards 5th Duke of Gordon 1792-94
http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collections/subject_search.php?objectId=2574
< Jane Maxwell, Duchess of Gordon, c 1749 - 1812. Wife of the 4th Duke of Gordon (With her
son, George Duncan, 1770 - 1836. Marquess of Huntly, later 5th Duke of Gordon. General)
1778 portrait by George Romney
The Duchess of Gordon was witty, clever and ambitious. She married one of the richest men in
Europe and helped run his vast family estates. She had seven children and became the leader of
fashionable society in London and Edinburgh. In Romney's impressive double portrait, the
Duchess is shown with her elder son, George, Marquess of Huntly who became Duke of Gordon
in 1827. When George was recruiting a regiment for the army, his mother is said to have helped
him by offering the king's shilling from between her own lips.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Gordon%2C_5th_Duke_of_Gordon
George Gordon, 5th Duke of Gordon GCB PC (1770 - 1836) was a Scottish nobleman, soldier
and politician.
As Marquess of Huntly, he served with the Guards in Flanders from 1793-4. He raised the 92nd Highlanders and commanded the
regiment in Spain, Corsica, Ireland and the Netherlands from 1795 to 1799, where he was badly wounded. He was appointed
Lieutenant General in 1808 and General in 1819. He commanded a division in the Walcheren Expedition of 1809.
He was Member of Parliament for Eye in 1806, was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1830 and was Keeper of the Great Seal of
Scotland from 1828 to 1830, a post that his father had held until 1827.
He was called up to the House of Lords in his father's barony of Gordon of Huntly in 1807 and succeeded as Duke of Gordon,
Marquess of Huntly and Earl of Norwich in 1827. All three titles became extinct at his death.
http://www.electricscotland.com/WEBCLANS/earldoms/chapter3s18.htm
GEORGE, FIFTH DUKE OF GORDON—HE JOINED THE ARMY—HE RAISED THE 92ND HIGHLANDERS, WAS APPOINTED
COLONEL COMMANDANT OF THE REGIMENT—SKETCH OF THE SERVICES OF THE 92ND—THE REGIMENT IN EGYPT,
PORTUGAL, AND SPAIN—HEROIC ACTION OF THE 92ND AT QUATRE BRAS AND WATERLOO.
GEORGE, fifth Duke of Gordon, was born in 1770. He joined the army in his 20th year; and in 1791 he was a captain in the famous
42nd Highlanders. He was present at the engagements connected with the Duke of York’s expedition to Flanders in 1793.
Afterwards the Marquis of Huntly (as he then was) exchanged and became a captain in the 3rd Foot Guards. While in this regiment
he offered to raise a regiment for general service; and on the 10th of February, 1794, he received a commission for this purpose.
The young Marquis’s zeal and Spirit for the service were admirably seconded by his father and mother, the Duke and Duchess of
Gordon; and both of them, along with the Marquis himself, actively engaged personally in the work of recruiting. Such were their
combined efforts that within four months, the requisite number of men was raised. On the 24th of June, the regiment was inspected
by Major-General Sir Hector Munro at Aberdeen, and embodied under the name of the Gordon Highlanders. About three-fourths of
the men were Highlanders, mainly drawn from the estates of the Gordon family; and the other fourth came from the Lowlands of
Aberdeenshire and the neighbouring counties. The Marquis of Huntly was appointed Lieutenant-colonel commandant of the
regiment. A few of the other original officers may be mentioned:-
Major Charles Erskine of Cardross was killed in Egypt in 1801. Amongst the captians Alexander Napier of Blackstone was killed at
the battle of Corunna in 1809, when commanding officer of the regiment. Captain John Cameron, who had risen to the rank of
colonel, was killed at Quatre Bras on the 16th of June, 1815. Captain William Mackintosh of Aberarder, was killed in the battle of
Bergen, in Holland, on the 2nd of October, 1799.
On the 9th of July, 1794, the regiment embarked at Fort-George, and joined the camp at Netley Common in August, and then
placed on the list of numbered corps as the 100th Regiment. On the 5th of September the Gordon Highlanders embarked for
Gibraltar, where they continued till the 11th of June, 1795, when they were ordered to the Island of Corsica. In the following year the
regiment returned to Gibraltar; and in the spring of 1798, they embarked for England, and landed in the middle of May.
In a short time the regiment was ordered to Ireland. The duties of the service in that distracted country were very arduous, as the
men were kept almost constantly moving. On one occasion the regiment marched on three successive days a distance of 96 Irish
miles, with arms, ammunition, and knapsacks. Yet the Gordon Highlanders in the execution of their duties won much respect in
Ireland. When the regiment was about to leave one of its stations, the magistrates and people of the district presented an address to
the Marquis of Huntly, the commander, in which they remarked that "peace and order were re-established, rapine had disappeared,
confidence in the Government was restored, and the happiest cordiality subsisted since his regiment came among them."
The Gordon Highlanders left Ireland in June, 1799 proceeded to England, and joined the expedition then preparing for the coast of
Holland. At this time the number of the regiment was changed to the 92nd.
The Marquis of Huntly, as colonel in command, accompanied his regiment. He led the 92nd at the battle of Bergen, fought on the
2nd of October, 1799, and in which he was severely wounded. The Gordon Highlanders were in General Moore’s brigade, and he
was exceedingly pleased with their heroic efforts in this battle.
In the summer of 1800 the Gordon Highlanders disembarked on the island of Minorca, and they formed a part of the expedition
against Egypt. In the battle of the 13th of March, 1801, against the French in Egypt, the 92nd greatly distinguished themselves. They
not only firmly maintained their ground against the repeated attacks of the enemy, supported by a park of artillery, but also drove
them back. In this action the regiment suffered severely—their commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Erskine, died of his
wounds, other four officers, and nineteen rank and file, were killed; 6 officers, 10 sergeants, and 100 rank and file wounded.
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