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William Evans-Gordon

British politician (1857-1913)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 26, 2026
Entity authorityQ8008681 ↗
Source-derived summary

Major Sir William Eden Evans Gordon (8 August 1857 – 31 October 1913) was a British politician, military officer, and diplomat. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) who had served as a military diplomat in India.

As a political officer on secondment from the British Indian Army from 1876 to 1897 during the British Raj, he was attached to the Foreign Department of the Indian Government. His career in India was a mixture of military administrative business on the volatile North-West Frontier, and of diplomacy and foreign policy in advising maharajas or accompanying the viceroy in the princely states.

After leaving the army, Evans Gordon returned to Britain and in 1900 was elected as Conservative MP for Stepney on an "anti-alien platform". As a result of the pogroms in Eastern Europe, Jews were arriving in increasing numbers in Britain to stay or en route for America. Evans Gordon, as a "restrictionist", was heavily and actively involved in the passing of the Aliens Act 1905, which sought to limit the number of people allowed to enter Britain even temporarily. He held Stepney from 1900 to 1907.

Early life

William Eden Evans Gordon was born in Chatham, Kent, the youngest son of Major-General Charles Spalding Evans Gordon (19 September 1813 – 18 January 1901) and his first wife, Catherine Rose (23 July 1815 – 1858), daughter of Rev. Dr.

Editorial summary

“William Evans-Gordon” enters the record as british politician (1857-1913). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what William, Evans-Gordon and British can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1857, 1913, 1876, 1897—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1857-08-08. Its strongest next move is a source search built around William, Evans-Gordon and British.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“William Evans-Gordon” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, William, Evans-Gordon and British provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8008681. VIAF identifies the subject as 65449237. The Library of Congress control number is n85199038. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1857, 1913, 1876 and 1897.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “William Evans-Gordon”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow William Evans-Gordon primary sources, William Evans-Gordon archive and William research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “William Evans-Gordon”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “William Evans-Gordon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.