Portuguese-Australian poet, Politician, and horse jockey who is best known for Bush Ballads and Galloping Rhymes. His individual poems include "A Song of Autumn" and "The Swimmer."
He was the son of first cousins Adam Durnford Gordon and Harriet Gordon. After spending his youth in Portugal and England, he joined the South Australian Mounted Police in 1853.
He had a horse riding accident in 1870 that resulted in a head injury. This event, along with the initial failure of his Bush Ballads and Galloping Rhymes, was a factor in his June suicide.
He married Margaret Park in October of 1862. The couple's infant daughter died in 1868.
Composer Sir Edward Elgar set Gordon's poems "A Song of Autumn" and "The Swimmer" to music.
