Charles Gordon (25 December 1814 – 27 July 1899) was an English first-class

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er and

gin Gin () is a distilled alcoholic drink flavoured with juniper berries and other botanical ingredients. Gin originated as a medicinal liquor made by monks and alchemists across Europe. The modern gin was modified in Flanders and the Netherlands ...

distiller. A member of the Gordon family, he ran

Gordon's Gin Gordon's is a brand of London dry gin first produced in 1769. The top markets for Gordon's are the United Kingdom, the United States and Greece. It is owned by the British multinational alcoholic beverage company Diageo. It is the world's best- ...

from the 1850s. The grandson of the Alexander Gordon, the founder of

, he was born at

Finsbury Finsbury is a district of Central London, forming the southeastern part of the London Borough of Islington. It borders the City of London. The Manorialism, Manor of Finsbury is first recorded as ''Vinisbir'' (1231) and means "manor of a man c ...

in December 1814. He made his debut in

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

for the Gentlemen of England against the

Gentlemen of Kent Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class cricket, first-class county cricket, county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent. ...

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

in 1844, with Gordon playing in the return fixture at

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

. He played in the same fixture in 1845. By 1850, Gordon was in charge of Gordon's Gin and oversaw its exportation around the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

following the lifting of excise tax on exported gin by

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

. He resumed playing first-class cricket in 1851, when he played for a Marylebone Cricket Club and Metropolitan Clubs team and

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

. Gordon played first-class cricket frequently until 1862, having made 27 appearances, sixteen of which came for the

Marylebone Cricket Club The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's, Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London, England. The club was the governing body of cricket from 1788 to 1989 and retain ...

. He scored a total of 493 runs in his 27 matches at an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

of 12.02, with a high score of 33

not out In cricket, a batsman is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batsman is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at ...

. Although Gordon's Gin became an extremely successful brand, Gordon was prone to removing money from the company to invest in other ventures and inventions, which were always unsuccessful and led to the business, leaving his sons and daughters to find other means of income. Upon his death at

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...

in July 1897, the family association with the business ended. His grandson was Sir Douglas Gordon, a senior police officer in Bengal Province in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, Charles 1814 births 1899 deaths Cricketers from the London Borough of Islington English cricketers Gentlemen of England cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club and Metropolitan Clubs cricketers Middlesex cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Gentlemen of Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers English brewers 19th-century English businesspeople