Adam Lindsay Gordon

• Name — Adam Lindsay Gordon • Born — 19 October 1833 • Birthplace — Charlton Kings, England • Died — 24 June 1870 • Place of death — Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Burial Place — Brighton General Cemetery • Occupation — Poet, balladist, politician

Though commonly cited as having been born in Fayal in the Azores, where Captain Gordon had brought his wife for the sake of her health, Gordon's birthplace was the small English village of Charlton Kings near Cheltenham, where he was baptised. He was the son of Captain Adam Durnford Gordon and Harriet Gordon, his first cousin, both of whom were descended from Adam Gordon of Auchindoun, of the ballad "Edom o Gordon". Captain Gordon had retired from the Bengal cavalry and taught Hindustani. His mother's family had owned slaves in the British West Indies until the abolition of slavery in the 1830s, and had received significant financial compensation for the loss of their property. In 1859, Gordon inherited some £7,000 from his mother's estate. Gordon was sent to Cheltenham College in 1841, when he was only seven but, after he had been there a year, he was sent to a school run by the Rev. Samuel Ollis Garrard in Gloucestershire. He attended the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, in 1848, where he was a contemporary and friend of Charles George Gordon (no relation, later Gordon of Khartoum) and Thomas Bland Strange (later known as Gunner Jingo). Like Richard Henry Horne, he was asked to leave. Gordon was again admitted to Cheltenham College. Gordon was then sent to the Royal Grammar School Worcester in 1852. In 1853, with a letter of introduction to the governor, Gordon joined the mounted police.

• Illustration — Gordon riding Outlaw, 1863 Adam Lindsay Gordon also acted as groom for a period to senior South Australian Police Officer Alexander Tolmer. On 6 August 1859, the ship Admella ran aground on the Cape Northumberland shoals, not a great distance from where Gordon is known to have been staying. The ship broke up, many perished (see main article), and many heroic feats were attempted, including an epic horse ride to Mount Gambier to summon help. Some 10 years later, Gordon wrote a poem "From the Wreck", probably inspired by this story, but somehow the popular imagination put Gordon in that saddle, and a number of newspaper articles were written to debunk the myth. In July 1864, Gordon performed the daring riding feat known as Gordon's Leap on the edge of the Blue Lake. A commemorative obelisk erected there has an inscription which reads: This obelisk was erected as a memorial to the famous Australian poet. From near this spot in July, 1864, Gordon made his famed leap on horseback over an old post and rail guard fence onto a narrow ledge overlooking the Blue Lake and jumped back again onto the roadway. The foundation stone of the Gordon Memorial Obelisk was laid on 8th July 1887. He was elected by three votes to the South Australian House of Assembly on 16 March 1865 for the district of Victoria. In politics, Gordon was a maverick. His semiclassical speeches were colourful and entertaining, but largely irrelevant, and he resigned his seat on 10 November 1866. He found a good friend in wealthy fellow parliamentarian John Riddoch of Penola, and was a frequent guest at his grand residence "Yallum". There he wrote "The Sick Stockrider". Gordon's time in politics stimulated him to greater activity – poetry, horse racing, and speculation.

• Illustration — Gordon's Ballarat cottage, relocated from Craig's Hotel to the Ballarat Botanical Gardens With his failures behind him, Gordon turned to Victoria, not to Melbourne, which had ignored his poetry, but to Ballarat. DNA evidence revealed a possible child of Gordon's that was adopted by his good friends, however it is possible this child was an illegitimate offspring of a different one of Gordon's relatives.

• Illustration — Brighton Beach, the site of Gordon's death Bush Ballads and Galloping Rhymes was not successful at the time, but is now regarded as one of the most important pieces of Australian literature. Gordon committed suicide early on the morning of June 24, 1870. He shot himself in the head with a rifle among the scrub behind the sandhills of Brighton Beach in Melbourne. In October 1870, a monument was erected over his grave at the Brighton General Cemetery by his close friends.

• |Title — |Year — |First published — |Reprinted/collected in • "The Sick Stockrider" — 1870 — Colonial Monthly, January 1870 — Bush Ballads and Galloping Rhymes, Clarson, Massina & Co., 1870, pp.13–17 • "The Swimmer" — 1870 — Bush Ballads and Galloping Rhymes, Clarson, Massina & Co., 1870, pp.18–22

• "A Song of Autumn" (1868) (Gordon poem set to music by Edward Elgar) • Poetry by Adam Lindsay Gordon was set to music by French-Australian musician Theodore Tourrier (1846-1929) in 1904

The authorities additionally record the headings Adam Gordon and A L Gordon. His recorded language was English. He was the child of Adam Durnford Gordon and Harriet Elizabeth Gordon. He married Margaret Park. One child is recorded: Anne Lindsay Gordon.

Indexed under Scottish History and National Identity, Australian History and Society, Poetry Analysis and Criticism, Diverse Musicological Studies, Literature: history, themes, analysis. Recorded as poet, politician, writer and jockey. Associated with Whitman College.

• Illustration — An early 20th-century postcard based on "The Sick Stockrider" shows Gordon as the poem's dying speaker. • Sea Spray and Smoke Drift (1867) • Bush Ballads and Galloping Rhymes (1870) • Poems of the Late Adam Lindsay Gordon (1879) • Racing Rhymes and Other Verses (1901)