George John James Hamilton-Gordon, 5th Earl of Aberdeen (28 September 1816 – 22 March 1864), styled Lord Haddo before 1860, was a British peer and Liberal Party politician.
His uncle, William Gordon, had retired as Member of Parliament for Aberdeenshire in 1854 and Haddo put himself forward as his successor. However, Haddo had contracted what was probably tuberculosis, and he went to Egypt to spend a few months in a warm climate. Despite being absent from Scotland and not having canvassed the constituency, Haddo won the election and returned to take his seat in the House of Commons, in good health, a year later. He left the Commons after inheriting his father's title in 1860 and made a second trip to Egypt. Aberdeen had previously converted to Evangelicalism and it was in Egypt that he campaigned for the Coptics to convert to his own faith.
For part of his time in Egypt, he distributed Bibles with the American missionary Gulian Lansing, who later wrote a memoir about their journey.[3]
Aberdeen later returned to Scotland and died at his home, Haddo House, in 1864. He was buried at Methlick and was succeeded by his eldest son, George. His last words were (when asked how he felt) "Perfectly comfortable". Hamilton-Gordon donated a large collection of antiquities that his father had collected to the British Museum in 1861.[4]
