Major-General Thomas Gordon (1788 – 20 April 1841) was a British army officer and historian. He is remembered for his role in the Greek War of Independence in the 1820s and 1830s and his History of the war published in 1832. Early career He was born at Cairness House to Charles Gordon of Buthlaw and Cairness in Lonmay, Aberdeenshire and his wife Christian, née Forbes of Ballogie. He was educated at Eton College and Brasenose College, Oxford. From 1808 to 1810 he served in the Scots Greys. In May 1810 he left service in the British Army for travel and on 26 August was well received in Ioannina by Ali Pasha, local governor for the Ottoman Empire. Between 1810 and 1812, his travels included Athens, Constantinople, Thessaloniki as well as parts of Anatolia, Persia and Barbary. In 1813, he served as a captain on the staff of the Russian Army, and in November 1813 was in the army of Count von Walmoden at Pretzer in Mecklenburg. Early in 1814, he returned to his seat of Cairness House until 1815 when he went abroad again to Constantinople, where he married Barbara Kana (afterwards Baroness de Sedaiges). Military service in Greece during the 1820s Gordon returned to Greece in 1821 at the commencement of the Greek War of Independence. He served through the campaign of 1821 in Morea (the Peloponnese) as chef d’état major under Demetrios Ypsilantis. He took part in the siege of Tripolitsa. After the capture, he strongly protested against the massacre by the Greeks of several thousand Turks there. On being ignored, he retired for a time from service. In November 1822, the provisional Greek government at Hermione sent a letter asking him to return to them. He declined but joined the Greek committee in London (formed 8 March 1823) and contributed money and military supplies. He refused the committee's invitation to go to Greece as one of three commissioners in charge of stores and funds stating that the Greeks were unwilling to submit to European discipline. As a committee member, he strongly supported the appointment of George Byron, 6th Baron Byron. Early in 1824, a Greek deputation raised a loan in London and again unsuccessfully asked Gordon to return. In 1826, renewed representations from Greece and the Greek deputies in London persuaded him to return to promote unity and military discipline. He reached Nafplion in May 1826 and