Gordon never married and is not known to have had a sexual or romantic relationship with anyone, claiming that his Army service and frequent travels to dangerous places made it impossible for him to marry as he was a "dead man walking" who could only hurt a potential wife as it was inevitable that he would die in battle. Gordon's parents expected him to marry and were disappointed in his lifelong bachelorhood. Urban wrote that the best evidence suggests Gordon was a latent homosexual whose sexual repression led him to funnelling his aggression into a military career with a special energy. The British historian Denis Judd wrote about Gordon's sexuality: