English army officer and colonial administrator Charles George Gordon, better known as Gordon of Khartoum, was BOTD in 1833. Born in London to a military family, he was educated at the Woolwich Military Academy, and joined the Royal Engineers Corps in the British Army. An effective strategist and charismatic leader, he was often disciplined for failing to follow orders. He served in the Crimean War, distinguishing himself with his bravery, and sent to Armenia to map the new borders between the Russian and Ottoman Empires. He then volunteered to serve in China, leading a force of Chinese soldiers to victory in the Taiping Rebellion. In 1873 he became the Governor-General of the Sudan, vigorously suppressing indigenous revolts against British rule. After resigning, he returned to Khartoum in 1884, organising a citywide defence against Muslim rebels lasting for nearly a year. Hailed in the British press as a folk hero, the British Government were less impressed, refusing to send backup forces. Gordon was captured and executed in 1885, aged 51, just two days before British troops arrived. Romanticised as a war hero by the Victorians, 20th century historians were more critical, viewing him as a deranged egomaniac and white supremacist. Gordon never married or had children, surrounding himself with a cohort of handsome young soldiers. Biographers have speculated that he was a repressed homosexual who wished to expiate his sins by dying heroically in battle. He was played with earnest ridiculousness by Charlton Heston in the 1966 film Khartoum.