Life is mostly froth and bubble,
Two things stand like stone.
Kindness in another’s trouble,
Courage in your own.
Adam Lindsay Gordon

Though considered by many to be the National Poet of Australia, Adam Lindsay Gordon was born in Charlton Kings, becoming one of Cheltenham College’s first pupils in 1841.

Gordon spent much of his youth steeple-chasing and bare-knuckle boxing and was sent to Australia by his father in 1853, where he went on to enlist with the mounted police, become an MP for South Australia and achieve national fame as a jockey.

He published several volumes of poetry, the last published just one day before his death in Melbourne. Bush Ballads and Galloping Rhymes is now regarded as one of the most important pieces of Australian Literature. His collection included a poem entitled How We Beat The Favourite, believed to have been written about the steeplechase at Cheltenham in 1847.

He is the only Australian poet to have been honoured with a bust in Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey and, since 2006, an annual festival has been held on the anniversary of his death. National Froth and Bubble Day is a line from his poem Ye Wearie Wayfarer, published in 1865 and included at the top of this profile. Particularly apt in today’s unprecedented times.

A plaque to Adam Lindsay Gordon was unveiled at his boyhood home, 28 Priory Street, Cheltenham, in October 1933, where it remains to this day.