Gerald Gordon was born in Kimberley on 19 January 1909. He attended SACS Junior School from 1914 to 1919. He then attended Kimberley Boys’ High School where he won the London College of Preceptors’ prize for the top place in the British Empire in Latin and Greek in 1924. In 1925 he matriculated in the first class, being awarded the Kimberley Dux Medal. He obtained the De Beers and Diamond Scholarships and in 1926 commenced a BA degree in Classics at the University of Cape Town, where he won the Douallier Prize for the best student in Latin and became the joint holder of the Governor-General’s Prize for top place in the first year. He then proceeded to study for the LLB degree and in his final year in 1930 was awarded the Hyman Liberman Scholarship as the outstanding student.

In 1931 Gordon joined the Cape Bar. In 1936 he published the first edition of his pioneering work on insurance, The South African Law of Insurance. In 1954 together with Arthur Suzman, Gordon published The Law of Compulsory Motor Insurance. He became a King’s Counsel in 1949. His practice dealt mainly with commercial law, but in time he took up civil rights cases relating to segregation laws and appeared for the defence in a number of political cases such as the prosecutions of Neville Alexander and Fikile Bam. He was chairman of the Cape Bar for three terms between 1965 and 1972, and encouraged the protection of civil liberty. In this capacity he was successful in opposing government plans to strike those listed as communists off the rolls of advocates and attorneys, and made representations to the government for the release of detainees such as Bram Fischer and Albie Sachs.

In 1940 Gordon joined the South African Infantry as a private and served in the front line in Abyssinia, Suez, Egypt and Libya. He then became an information officer and was demobilised in the rank of captain in September 1945.

Inspired by the ideal of building a better society, on returning to the Bar after the war, he was not satisfied with being only a legal practitioner. In 1946, Leo Marquard, Gordon and a few former army information officers founded the Institute of Citizenship to carry on the struggle for democratic values and civil rights. He served on its council from its inception and became Honorary Life President in 1981. Out of the Institute came the idea in the early fifties for the University of Cape Town Summer School. Gordon also supported the Civil Rights League which was formed in 1949.

In protest against the government’s plans to abolish the entrenched sections of the South Africa Act that guaranteed the franchise, and remove the coloured voters from the common roll, he helped form and became national vice-chairman of the War Veterans Torch Commando. The aims of the movement were to uphold the principles agreed on at Union in 1910 as a moral duty; to cause the repeal of legislation violating them; to secure freedom of worship, language and speech and access to the courts; to eliminate totalitarianism; and to promote social harmony.

As a member of the Liberal Party, he stood for election as a Member of Parliament for the Sea Point constituency in the 1958 general election and retained his deposit. He resigned from the Liberal Party in 1960 and joined the Progressive Party in 1961.

Gordon was possibly best known as a staunch protector of the rights of the individual and as a protagonist of the rule of law. From the 1950s onwards until the year of his death, he was a prolific writer of newspaper articles and a speaker on legal, political, constitutional and social issues, and the role of the judiciary, in the political context of the times. His outspokenness was not looked upon with favour by the authorities and he had to endure passport restrictions and a raid on his home by the security forces in 1964. Gordon also wrote and spoke on Jewish issues.

In addition to his legal works, articles and papers, Gordon was also the author of three novels, Let the Day Perish, The Crooked Rain and Four People, which were translated into several languages. His interest in writing led to his involvement with the Cape Town PEN Centre (International Association of Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists and Novelists) and being elected as National President of SA PEN. In this capacity he made representations to the government for the removal of banning orders that had been placed on writers and their works. Gordon was also a director of Purnell & Sons (publishers) and Chairman of Contrast, a South African literary journal.

From the late 1950s Gordon resided in a bungalow at Clifton. This community had unusual leasehold rights, in that the land was rented from the municipality but the houses were privately owned. Gordon played a leading role in the long-established Clifton-on-Sea and District Bungalow Owners’ Association which sought to represent the interests of the lessees to the municipality and ultimately achieved freehold rights.

Gordon was awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa by the University of Cape Town in 1996.

In 1960 Gordon married Nancy Muriel Baines, a literary critic, and they had two children, Stephen and Vanessa. Gerald Gordon died on 30 August 1998.