Before he became famous Charles Gordon (1833 – 1885) was sent, as a young Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, to construct fortifications at Milford Haven. This was in 1854, after he had completed his military training at the Royal Military Academy, in Woolwich, and at Chatham. Gordon took lodgings on Bush Street in Pembroke Dock and was often to be seen walking on Barrack Hill. The Crimean War was in progress at the time and Gordon soon found himself, along with the rest of the 31st East Surrey Regiment, leaving Pembroke Dock on board the Imperadore, heading for the war zone. He arrived at Balaklava in January 1855 and took part in the action at Sevastopol and Redan, amongst others. Later in his career Gordon distinguished himself in China and Africa and met an untimely end at the hands of the Mahdi’s forces at Khartoum, in the Sudan.