The Unreturning Army

Huntly Gordon was a typical product of his generation; capable of detached, trenchant and reasoned judgement. As the summer of 1914 drew to a close, it was difficult for the 16 year-old Gordon to realize that the world he had planned and prepared for at Clifton College was a world in which he now had to prepare for war. This book tells his story.

HUNTLY STRATHEARN GORDON was born in a Perthshire in 1898. He was educated at Clifton College and joined the Royal Field Artillery in 1916. By June 1917, aged just 19, he was on the Western Front. Though badly wounded (he was declared 25% disabled), he survived the war, confounding the army medics by playing rugby again and taking up medicine. He gave up his studies -- having 'seen too many people die' -- and took a job with Shell Oil in 1923, who sent him to China. Three years later, he was forced to flee as the communist insurgency raged. Back in the UK, he joined London Transport, while devoting his spare time to working with Sir Mortimer Wheeler and surveying archaeological sites in England and France. During the Blitz, he initiated the food trains for refugees and was awarded an MBE. He moved to Hampshire in the 1950s and ran a market garden business. A heart attack in 1960 forced him to take things more slowly and The Unreturning Army was published in 1967. His second book, The Minister's Wife, was published in 1978. Twice married, Huntly Gordon died in 1982, and is buried by the ancient Kincardine church in Strathspey.