Adam Lindsay Gordon

Poet, born in Fayal in the Azores. He was raised and educated in England. A wild and reckless youth, his father sent him to South Australia, where he became a horsebreaker and amateur steeplechaser. During the next few years he moved several times, published three volumes of poetry without success, suffered a series of mishaps, and finally committed suicide. Much of his best work is collected in Sea Spray and Smoke Drift (1867) and Bush Ballads and Galloping Rhymes (1870). He is recognized as the first poet to write in an Australian style, and is the only Australian poet honoured in the poets' corner of Westminster Abbey.

Adam Lindsay Gordon (October 19, 1833 – 24 June 1870) was an Australian poet and jockey.

Born in the Azores in 1833 he was sent to England to be educated. After attending Woolwich Academy — where, like Richard Henry Horne, he was asked to leave — he was sent to the Royal Grammar School Worcester in 1852.

In 1870 he published his book Bush Ballads and Galloping Rhymes which was not successful at the time, but is now regarded as one of the most important pieces of Australian literature.

He is commemorated with a bust in Poets Corner, Westminster Abbey being the only Australian poet to have one.