THE TURKISH CRIMEA MEDAL AWARDED TO CAPTAIN WILLIAM CLEATHER GORDON, WHO SAW SERVICE DURING THE CRIMEAN WAR AS A DEPUTY ASSISTANT COMMISSARY OF ORDNANCE WITH THE OSMANLI (OTTOMAN I.E. TURKISH) BASHI-BAZOUK (IRREGULAR) CONTINGENT

THE TURKISH CRIMEA MEDAL AWARDED TO CAPTAIN WILLIAM CLEATHER GORDON, WHO SAW SERVICE DURING THE CRIMEAN WAR AS A DEPUTY ASSISTANT COMMISSARY OF ORDNANCE WITH THE OSMANLI (OTTOMAN I.E. TURKISH) BASHI-BAZOUK (IRREGULAR) CONTINGENT (LATER ENSIGN, ST HELENA REGIMENT, DEPUTY COMMISSARY, ORDNANCE STORE DEPARTMENT AND, FOLLOWING HIS RETIREMENT FROM THE ARMY, MANAGER OF THE LANGHAM HOTEL, LONDON). Turkish Crimea Medal, British flag to the fore, a superior “officer” quality, high relief striking of the type privately purchased by officers and men to replace the poor quality Turkish medals with which the were originally issued (engraved in uprght block capitals: D.A.C. OF. ORDNANCE. WILLIAM CLEATHR GORDON). Silver claw and swiveling ring suspender. Small nick to obverse rim, otherwise Good Very Fine to Almost Extremely Fine, with a length of original silk ribbon.

William Cleather Gordon (1839-1916) was born in Jamaica circa 1839. He is recorded in the 1851 census as a 12 year old schoolboy resident at a Channel Islands boarding schools in St Helier, Jersey. Gordon first saw service during the Crimean War as a Deputy Assistant Commissary (local Captain) in the Field Train of the Turkish Contingent. Following the end of the Crimean War and disbandment of the Turkish Contingent, Gordon was commissioned Ensign (without purchase) St Helena Regiment, 13/4/1858. He resigned his commission on 12/11/1858 and was later appointed Assistant Superintendant of Stores (with the relative military rank of Lieutenant), Store Department, War Office. He was promoted Assistant Commissary (Lieutenant), Supply and Transport Sub-Department, Control Department, War Office, 1/4/1861. Gordon briefly found himself in financial difficulties and was declared bankrupt in 1871. After resolving his financial difficultied, he continued to serve with the Control Department and was promoted Deputy Commissary (relative military rank Captain), Control Department, Bermuda, 29/4/1874. Gordon retired on 24/3/1880.

The Stores Department that Gordon joined in 1861 was a uniformed civilian sub-department of the Commissariat Department under the control of the War Office. That department traced its origins to the appointment by James II in 1685, of a Commissary General tasked with supplying the army with food and transport. The Commissariat was much reduced in the years leading up to the outbreak of the Crimean War and as a result famously struggled to deal with the complexities of supplying the Army during Crimean War, and as a result, in December 1854, control of its military functions were transferred to the War Office. The Commissariat remained a uniformed civilian service until 1869, when its officers transferred to the new Control Department as commissioned Army officers. The Control Department then went through a number of incarnations, before becoming the Army Service Corps in 1888.

The 1881 census records Gordon as being the Manager of The Langham Hotel, London. He commuted the bulk of his Retired Pay in 1885, for a lump sum of £3046. In retirement, Gordon lived at Southwold, Suffolk, and died there on 29/5/1916. An obituary notice from the Halesworth Times of 6/6/1916 notes that Gordon was a retired army Captain and his funeral as having been a full military one, with a party of bearers anda piper from the London Scottish, along with four buglers and a band master.

Gordon was twice married. He is recorded in the 1871 census, then 33 years old, as living at Tamar Villa, Herbert Road, Woolwich, London with his 33 year old wife Emily Elizabeth. Elizabeth died on 10/11/1877 and in December 1878 he married Mary Murray.

Gordon patented an “improved electric fire alarm apparatus principally for hotels and other large structures” in 1883, his address for the patent application being the Langham Hotel, London. The patented system was described as having multiple sensors “so that an alarm of fire originated on any floor or locality on any floor may be sounded simultaneously wherever required and convey precise information of its whereabouts”.

The Langham Hotel, one of the largest and best known grand hotels in London, is located in Marlybone. The opening ceremony, on 10/6/1865, was performed by Edward, Prince of Wales. At the time it was one of the most modern hotels in London, with 136 toilets, 36 bathrooms and the first hydraulic lifts in England. In the intervening 150 years it has played host to many famous guests, including Mark Twain, the Emperor Napoleon III, Oscar Wilde, Dvorak, Toscanini, Sibelius, Diana, Princess of Wales, Winston Churchil, Charles de Gaulle, Wallis Simpson and the Emperor Haile Selaissie of Ethopia. Colonel Doyle set the Sherlock Holmes stories “A Scandal in Bohemia” and “The Sign of Four” partly at the Langham.

The Osmanli (Ottoman, i.e.Turkish) Bashi-Bazouk (Irregular) Contingent was a 4,000 strong force of irregular Turkish cavalry and artillery raised in the Autumn of 1854 by Lieutenant-Colonel W.F. Beatson, 4th European Bengal Infantry, who had previously successfully raised and commanded other irregular units in India. That force was officered by volunteers from the British and Indian armies and by a number of civilian “adventurers”, and as a result became known subsequently as the Anglo-Turkish Legion. Following the raising of the legion, Beatson was promoted, and given the local rank of Major-General, on 1/11/1854. That force, whose cavalry element was known as Beatson’s Horse, was disbanded after the cessation of hostilities in the Crimea on 27/11/1856.

General Sir William Ferguson Beatson, KCB, CIE, GCO (1821-1895) began his military career with the 2nd Battalion 25th Bengal Native Infantry in 1820 and saw service with a number of regiments of the Bengal Native Army before going on furlough to fight in Spain during the Spanish Civil War in the 1830’s. He returned to India in 1837 where he raised the Bundelkhande Legion, which saw service under General Napier during the Scinde campaign. In 1847 he was appointed to command the Nizam’s Cavalry in Hyderabad and immediately prior to volunteering for service in the Crimea was serving as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the 4th Bengal European Infantry. Beatson’s success in raising and commanding irregular units resulted in his being appointed to raise the Anglo-Turkish Legion. He had a particular interest in irregular cavalry and their use, and as a result gave his name to the Turkish cavalry unit he had raised. In 1857 he returned to India, where he raised two regiments of irregular cavalry, also known as Beatson’s Horse, which saw service during the mutiny in the Central India campaign. After subsequent commands in Allahabad and Ambala he returned on leave to England, where he died in 1895.

For a contemporary account of service with the Turkish irregular forces during the Crimean War, see Edward Money’s “Twelve Months with the Bashi-Bazouks” (Chapman & Hall, London, 1857).

Service as an officer with the Turkish irregular (Bashi-Bazouk) units in the British officered Anglo-Turkish Legion was not an easy option. The Bashi-Bazouks were irregular soldiers recruited by the Turkish army in wartime. The recruits were mainly Albanians and Circassians, but also included volunteers from all the ethnic groups of the Ottoman empire, as well as slaves from Europe and Africa. They had a reputation for extreme bravery, but were also highly indisciplined and notorious for looting and attacks on civilians and non-combattants. The Turkish phrase Bashi-Bazouk translates as “crazy-head”.

Since Gordon saw service in the Crimea exclusively with the Turkish contingent and did not see service with the British army, he would not have been entitled to a British Crimea Medal, and the Turkish Crimea Medal was thus his sole medal entitlement.