Gordon Brown (Australian politician) Gordon Brown (Australian politician) Gordon Brown (11 February 1885 – 12 January 1967) was a long-serving Australian politician. Born in Derbyshire, England, he was educated at Clay Cross Grammar School. He was apprenticed as a pattern maker but had a range of other jobs including piano salesman and coal miner. He visited Canada where he was imprisoned for street agitation. He migrated to Australia in 1912, where he became an organiser of the Shop Assistants' Union and of the Socialist Party. He spent time in gaol in Queensland. He was a member of the Brisbane Trades Hall Council, and was
David Gordon (Australian politician) as a member of the House of Representatives at the 1911 Boothby by-election following the death of Labor incumbent Lee Batchelor. In parliament Gordon was a vocal supporter of the development of South and central Australia and was a member of the Royal Commission on the fruit industry. Gordon lost his seat at the 1913 election but switched to state politics and was elected to the South Australian Legislative Council in 1913. Gordon was appointed Minister for Education and Repatriation by Premier Archibald Peake in July 1917 but resigned the next month in protest at the Commonwealth Liberal Party's coalition