Adam Lindsay Gordon

19th Oct 1833 - 24th Jun 1870


Biography

  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.


Sources

  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].


Further Information

Absentee?
British/Irish
Spouse
Margaret Park
Children
Annie Lindsay (1867-1867)
School
Cheltenham College; Royal Military Academy at Woolwich (1848-51); Royal Worcester Grammar School (1852)
Occupation
Poet and horseman

Legacies Summary

Historical (1)

BooksAuthor?
Bush Ballads and Galloping... 1870 

Imperial (1)

Member of Assembly
Australia: Victoria 

Physical (2)

Public memorial
Adam Lindsay Gordon 
description →
Memorial bust of Adam Lindsay Gordon in Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey, unveiled in...
Public memorial
Adam Lindsay Gordon 
description →
Statue of Gordon, East Melbourne, Victoria....

Relationships (1)

Son → Mother

Addresses (2)

Australia
Esslemont House, , Ellon, Aberdeenshire, North-east Scotland, Scotland