Adam Lindsay Gordon

1. Son of Harriet Elizabeth Gordon (q.v.) and Adam Durnford Gordon. Reported to have been born at Fayal, Azores, Portugal. Recent research by Jill Waller, however, indicates that Gordon was born in Cheltenham; both an 1833 birth notice in a Bath newspaper and details from the 1851 census record indicate Cheltenham as Gordon's birthplace.

2. Emigrated to Australia in 1853. Inherited £7,000 from his mother who died in 1858. He was a poet and horseman who served as Member of Assembly for Victoria in the House of Assembly in South Australia, 1865-1866. He remained in Australia until his death from suicide, despite some claim to inherit the Gordon family estate in Esslemont, Scotland. There is a statue of Gordon by Paul Montford erected by public subscription near Parliament House, Melbourne in 1932; a bust of him was unveiled in Westminster Abbey in 1934.

We are grateful to Professor Margaret Allen and Brigid Magner for helping to compile this entry.

1. Birth notice in the Bath Chronicle & Weekly Gazette 31/10/1833 [British Newspaper Archive], 1851 National Census [UK National Archives/Public Record Office].

2. Leonie Kramer, 'Gordon, Adam Lindsay (1833–1870)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/gordon-adam-lindsay-3635 [accessed 15/10/2012]; https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/adam-lindsay-gordon [accessed 29/04/2019].