The ‘Ever-Victorious Army’

Journalist and traveller Andrew Wilson (1831–1881) was born in India to colonial missionaries. Educated in Europe, he later edited the China Mail in Hong Kong, and the Bombay Times. This, his best known work, was published in 1868, and recounts the suppression of the Taiping uprising in 1863–1864 by Colonel Charles G. ('Chinese') Gordon, leading a small multinational force. The Taiping rebellion against the Qing dynasty lasted from 1850 to 1864, and it is estimated that some 20 million people died as a result. Wilson was given access to Gordon's journals to write the book. Wilson was very pro-Chinese, and was quite critical of British colonial policy towards China. Despite this bias, the work contains much fascinating information on nineteenth-century China, and sheds light on the early career of one of Britain's greatest Victorian military heroes.