Background
Gordon was the son of Samuel Gordon, of Shankhill, County Down.
Gordon was the son of Samuel Gordon, of Shankhill, County Down.
He was educated at Queen"s College Galway, a constituent college of the Queen"s University of Ireland, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1873, and Bachelor of Laws in 1876.
He served as auditor of the college"s Literary and Debating Society for the 1873-1874 session. He was awarded an L.L.D. (honoris causa) on the dissolution of the Queen"s University in 1882. He was called to the Irish Bar at the King"s Inns in 1877.
In June 1915 when his party joined the Asquith coalition government, he was appointed Attorney-General for Ireland, an office he held until April 1916, when he was appointed a judge of the King"s Bench division of the High Court of Justice in Ireland.
He died in Dublin on 26 September 1922, having been taken ill in a tram on his journey home from the Four Courts. Maurice Healy, who vividly described many of the Irish judges of his youth in " The Old Munster Circuit" confessed that Gordon had made almost no impression on him except a refusal to wear bright colours.
On 1st October, 1902, John Gordon sent a letter to be read at the annual meeting of the Moray and Nairn Conservative Association. In this letter, he cited growing tensions in Europe and abroad in order to call for increased unity within the United Kingdom, stating that "We shall need amid the gathering difficulties of the future a united national voice in support of our empire"s interests in peace or in where when these are threatened by a world-wide rivalry".
27th United Kingdom Parliament. 28th United Kingdom Parliament. 29th United Kingdom Parliament.
30th United Kingdom Parliament]
Gordon was elected a Member of Parliament for the South Londonderry constituency in 1900, as a representative of the Liberal Unionist interest, and served in the House of Commons until 1916.
He also became a member of the Irish Privy Council in 1915.