Gordon Bennett

Either for Henry Gordon Bennett, an Australian lieutenant general who deserted his command and fled to safety during the Japanese invasion of Singapore, leaving his unfortunate troops behind to be captured, or for James Gordon Bennett, Jr., a New York newspaper proprietor and playboy during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who became widely known for his extravagant lifestyle and shocking behaviour. The latter explanation is more likely, as the first time the expression appears in print was in 1937, in James Curtis's novel, You’re in the Racket, Too.