A maquette for the monument commissioned by The Corps of Royal Engineers for the Brompton Barracks at The School of Military Engineering at Chatham, Surrey. The statue was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1890 and a later casting was made and installed at the junction of St. Martins Lane and Charing Cross Road, London. This later cast was moved to Khartoum to the south of the palace built in 1899, but removed at the advent of Sudanese independence in 1954-6 and installed at Gordon's School, Woking.

Major-General Charles Gordon (1833-1885), army officer and former Governor-General of Sudan, best remembered for his organisation of the defence of Khartoum during the Mahdist revolt of 1884. He was killed two days before the arrival of the British relief force called the Nile Expedition, led by Field Marshal Wolseley.