Page 112 - Collecting and Displaying China's Summer Palace in the West

“Chinese Gordon” and the Royal Engineers Museum 97
and Harrison’s roles were during the sacking of the Summer Palace, but context should
be provided, which looks at the military culture of the time in taking objects on
campaign. This could lead to discussion about how attitudes have changed over time
and the effect of the Hague conventions of 1899 and 1907. 31 The issue of looting is
something that the British army takes very seriously. With the introduction of the
Armed Forces Act (2006), looting 32 is an offence punishable by life imprisonment.

Notes
1 This Imperial army was led by European and American officers. It was involved in putting
down internal rebellions in China between 1860 and1864. This included the Taiping
Rebellion (1850–1864) that occurred in southern China. This conflict has one of the
highest death tolls in military history, with at least 20 million deaths.
2 Whitworth Porter, History of the Corps of Royal Engineers, Vol I, (Chatham: Institution
of Royal Engineers, 1889), 511–515.
3 Charles Gordon in, Porter, History of the Corps, 514.
4 Harrison lived between 1837 and 1931 and spent much of his life with the Army, even -
tually becoming a General. He saw service in India, China, South Africa and in Britain.
5 Richard Harrison, Recollections of a life in the British Army during the latter half of the
19th century (London: Smyth, Elder and Coy, 1908), 93.
6 Charles Gordon in, Archibald Forbes, Forbes’ Chinese Gordon (London: George
Routledge & Sons, 1884), 27.
7 Chris Bowlby, “The palace of shame that makes China angry,” February 2, 2015, BBC
News, www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30810596; accessed May 2, 2016.
8 Harrison, Recollections, 93.
9 Charles Gordon in Porter, History of the Corps, 515.
10 Harrison, Recollections, 98.
11 The “Mahdi” was a self-proclaimed title given to the Islamic Sudanese military leader,
whose forces killed Gordon and the entire garrison at Khartoum.
12 This school was set up in West End, Surrey after Gordon’s death (1885) as a national
memorial.
13 In all panel text the Second Opium War is referred to as the “Second China War”.
14 Many of the donors are in fact anonymous, but those names include Lady Harrison
(Harrison’s widow), members of the Gordon family, a Sergeant Major Foster, RMA
Woolwich, a Lieutenant Colonel E.V. Thompson, and Dame Kathleen Courtney. The
loaned object is “Gordon’s Throne”, which is owned by the REHQ Mess.
15 Visit from Charles Aylmer to the REHQ Mess, June 28, 1987.
16 J.M. Lambert, “The RE Headquarters Mess,” Royal Engineers Journal, (1957): 289–295.
17 Mann was a Colonel and Commanding Royal Engineer in China.
18 Donated by Dame Kathleen Courtney.
19 Royal Engineers Museum Catalogue.
20 British Museum, 1880,1211.0.49.
21 It was questioned by a researcher in 2015 if these statues were consecrated and
unfortunately the Royal Engineers Museum does not have this information.
22 Louise Tythacott, “Trophies of War: Representing “Summer Palace” Loot in Military
Museums in the UK,” Museum and Society 13 (2015): 473.
23 James Hevia, “Looting Beijing: 1860, 1900,” in Tokens of Exchange: The Problem of
Translation in Global Circulations, ed. Lydia H. Liu, (Durham and London: Duke
University Press, 1999), 193.
24 This valuation took place in January 2013.
25 Harrison, Recollections, 75–84.
26 Royal Engineers Museum Accession Register.
27 This information features on the object’s record: Dickinson visited the museum in 1991.
28 Peter Foster, “China to study British Museum for looted artefacts,” The Daily Telegraph,
October 19, 2009.