| This is the last photograph take of Gordon before his fatal mission to Khartoum in 1884. Prior to his decision to return to the Sudan he had taken a commission for the King of the Belgians to assume governorship of the Belgian Congo from the famed Henry Morton Stanley. He ultimately declined the King's offer to attempt the evacuation of Khartoum. This portrait was taken for the Belgian King and bears Gordon's facsimile signature. It was probably produced as a memorial after Gordon's death. Cabinet Photograph London Stereoscopic Company - Photographer 110, 108 & 106 Regent Street W., London, England c. 1885 |