Gordon, the son of an artillery officer, was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers in 1852. During the Crimean War (1853–56) he distinguished himself by his reckless bravery in the siege trenches outside Sevastopol. He was promoted to captain in 1859 and volunteered the following year to join the British forces that were fighting the Chinese in the “Arrow” War. He was present at the occupation of Beijing (October 1860) and personally directed the burning of the Chinese emperor's summer palace. In May 1862 Gordon's corps of engineers was assigned to strengthen the bulwarks of the European trading centre of Shanghai, which was threatened by the insurgents of the Taiping Rebellion. A year later he became commander of the 3,500-man peasant force, known as the “Ever-Victorious Army,” raised to defend the city. During the next 18 months Gordon's troops played an important, though not a crucial, role in suppressing the Taiping uprising. He returned in January 1865 to England, where an enthusiastic public had already dubbed him “Chinese Gordon.” For the next five years he was commander of the Royal Engineers at Gravesend, Kent; he spent his spare time developing his own unorthodox, mystical brand of Christianity and engaging in philanthropic activity among poor youths.

In 1873 the khedive Ismāʿīl Pasha of Egypt, who regularly employed Europeans, appointed Gordon governor of the province of Equatoria in the Sudan. In Equatoria, from April 1874 to December 1876, Gordon mapped the upper Nile River and established a line of stations along the river as far south as present-day Uganda. After a brief stay in England, he resumed service under the khedive as governor-general of the Sudan. Gordon established his ascendancy over this vast area, crushing rebellions and suppressing the slave trade. Ill health forced him to resign and return to England in 1880; over the next two years he served in India, China, Mauritius, and Cape Colony (in Southern Africa).

In 1884 Gordon was again sent to the Sudan by the British government to evacuate Egyptian forces from Khartoum, which was threatened by the Mahdists, followers of Muḥammad Aḥmad al-Mahdī (Mahdī, al-). Reappointed governor-general, Gordon arrived in Khartoum in February. Khartoum came under siege (Khartoum, Siege of) a month later, and on Jan. 26, 1885, the Mahdists broke into the city and killed Gordon and the other defenders. The British public reacted to his death by acclaiming “Gordon of Khartoum” a martyred warrior-saint and by blaming the government for failure to relieve the siege. However, some biographers, such as the noted Lytton Strachey (Strachey, Lytton), have suggested that Gordon, in defiance of his government's orders, had deliberately refused to evacuate Khartoum, even though evacuation was still possible until late in the siege.