Our very first article in the Way Back Wednesday series back in 2018 shared the name inspiration behind modern Harborn Road – named in reference to the Harbourne Estate of Albert Parker. The property was renamed Craigmyle by Lieutenant Andrew Robertson Gordon in 1872. Although Craigmyle is not remembered on our landscape today, Gordon’s surname is. Back in 2018 I had intended to explore Gordon’s story in greater detail, but way leads upon way, and here we are, some 271 articles later, finally coming back to story.

South of The Queensway, and to the west of Hurontario Street, you will find an area known as Gordon Woods, and a road called Gordon Drive. Both are named in reference to the aforementioned Andrew Robertson Gordon, and are located on part of the historic Gordon family property.

Andrew Robertson Gordon was born in 1851 in Aberdeen, Scotland. He joined the Royal Navy in 1863 and was promoted to Lieutenant in 1871. He served in Malta, Jamaica and Bermuda during his career. He came to Canada in 1872, arriving in Quebec in May of 1872, and then marrying May Elizabeth Parker (1848-1913) in June of 1872 at St. John the Baptist Anglican Church in Dixie. Andrew and May then settled in the Cooksville area of Mississauga – the Parker family having settled here earlier, with May having been born in Cooksville in 1848. She was the daughter of Sir Melville Parker (1824-1903), a noted early politician and businessman. It is likely that the marriage was arranged to connect two prominent families, both with ties to the Royal Navy. After establishing himself here in Canada, Gordon formally retired from the Royal Navy in 1873.

Gordon established a career as a public servant, although he became well connected to political figures of his day. In 1880 Gordon was appointed deputy superintendent of the Meteorological Service in the Marine and Fisheries Department. Stationed out of the central office in Toronto, Gordon was engaged in inspecting weather observation stations and in advising on the development of the service. Gordon travelled to stations in Quebec and around the Gulf of St Lawrence in 1881, and in 1883 travelled west into Manitoba, making recommendations to expand the service and improve reporting, in conjunction with the westward expansion of the railway. In time, his efforts would take him into the western territories and the arctic.

In 1884 he was appointed to head the first Canadian expedition into Hudson Bay after confederation, with the aim to determine what period of year the Hudson Strait was navigable and to find a navigable port terminus for the railway on either the Nelson or the Churchill River.

His first expedition to Hudson Bay, which sailed from Halifax on the S.S. Neptune in July under Gordon’s command, established five observation stations along the strait and one on the Labrador coast. A wintering party of three men was left at each station, their prime responsibility being to observe and record ice formation, break-up, and movement. Gordon commanded subsequent expeditions in 1885 and 1886 aboard the D.S.S. Alert to take more summer observations, replace the wintering parties, and, in 1886, to remove the stations. In his reports Gordon concluded that navigation through Hudson Strait was limited to the July to October period, with the best conditions in August and September.

Following the Hudson Bay expeditions, from 1887 to 1891, he served in command of the fisheries protection fleet on the east coast. In October of 1891 he was appointed nautical adviser and commander of the fleet. Suffering from consumption, he was transferred from active duty in 1892 and supervised the fisheries patrol from Ottawa. He died in 1893 in Ottawa and was buried at St. Peter’s Anglican Cemetery here in Mississauga.

Lieutenant Andrew Robertson Gordon and his wife May Elizabeth Parker had eight children: Melville Burgoyne Robertson (1873-1957), Arthur Lindsay (1875-1959), Robert (1876-1881), Violet May (1878-1965), Constance Emmeline (1880-1896), Mabel Jessie (1883-1945), Beaumont Andrew (1886-1956) and Florence Ottilie (1887-1945). Several of their children married prominently and had notable careers. The family is also related, through marriage, to the Kennedy family of Dixie. Following Gordon’s passing, several members of the family moved west to Alberta, where they helped found the town of Craigmyle, Alberta – named after Gordon’s ancestral home in Scotland and after their renamed property here in historic Mississauga. Gordon’s daughter, Violet May, married Lt. Col. Robert Barry Eaton, and by 1908 they were living in Craigmyle, Starland, Alberta, where by 1911 they were joined by Andrew’s widow, May, and several other members of the Gordon family.