As a young Scotsman, Gordon said he didn’t think much about God. But in the wretched conditions of the prison camp, he said he found his salvation. “Faith thrives when there is no hope but God,” he said. “It is luxury and success that makes men greedy.”
“To End All Wars,” a movie to be released this spring, is based Gordon’s book, which will be re-released this year by HarperCollins. A fictionalized version of part of the same episode was furnished by the 1957 movie “The Bridge on the River Kwai.”
“Gordon was one of the giants of the Christian faith,” said Tom M. Castlen, executive presbyter of Long Island Presbytery, of which Gordon was a member. “His eloquent preaching and kind pastoral heart touched the lives of the church members in Amagansett and Montauk.”
“Ernest touched the lives of generations,” added Castlen. “His witness to what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ is a case study of what Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes about in Life Together.”
Born in Greenock, Scotland, Gordon studied history and philosophy at Glasgow and St. Andrews universities. He became an officer in the Argyl and Sutherland Highlanders and was sent to Singapore. He was wounded in battle in Malaysia, and when Singapore fell in the spring of 1942, he and a small group from his unit escaped to sea in an aging sloop, hoping to land in what is now Sri Lanka. They encountered a Japanese warship, however, and surrendered.
During his imprisonment, Gordon came down with diphtheria, malaria, typhoid, dysentery and intestinal worms. Following the war, he underwent months of medical treatment before his health and weight were restored. He resumed his studies and decided to become a minister, earning degrees from London University and Hartford Seminary in Connecticut. He also received a master’s from Hartford Seminary.
Gordon was ordained in the Church of Scotland in 1950 and came to the United States not long after. In 1954, he became Presbyterian chaplain at Princeton and a year later dean of chapel. He spoke out often on social issues, criticizing Senator Joseph R. McCarthy in the 1950s, hosting Martin Luther King Jr. in his home and opposing the Vietnam war. He retired as dean in 1981.
His wife of 51 years, Helen, died in 1997. He is survived by his son, Alastair, of Princeton; his daughter, Gillian Crozier, of London; his sister, Grace Kerr, of Ramsgate, England, and six grandchildren.
