"Gordon Bennett!" Who was he?

It's not an epitaph one would wish for - to become the physical embodiment of a swear word. But how else do you explain "Gordon Bennett!", the expression of surprise that, in lewder company, would take four-letter form?

But who was the original Gordon Bennett, and how did he come to be immortalised in the English language?

No one knows for sure, which is why the country's leading language experts are consulting the public on the origins of this and dozens of other vexing words and phrases.