The extraordinary saga of the colonial character ‘Captain’ Charles Gordon
O’Neill is told for the fi rst time. An engineer, inventor, parliamentarian and
philanthropist, Charles was a principal co-founder of the St Vincent de Paul Society in Australia and New Zealand. In a bitter twist of fate, despite all his technical skill, access to capital and political connections, O’Neill died a
pauper amid the slums of The Rocks in 1900.