Frederic Thesiger, 1st Viscount Chelmsford
Frederic John Napier Thesiger, 1st Viscount Chelmsford, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, GBE, PC (12 August 1868 – 1 April 1933), styled the Lord Chelmsford until 1921, was a British statesman. He served as Governor of Queensland from 1905 to 1909, Governor of New South Wales from 1909 to 1913, and Viceroy of India from 1916 to 1921, where he was responsible for the creation of the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms. After serving a short time as First Lord of the Admiralty in the government of Ramsay MacDonald, he was appointed the Agent-General for New South Wales by the government of Jack Lang before his retirement.[1]
The Viscount Chelmsford
12 August 1868
London, United Kingdom
1 April 1933 (aged 64)
London, United Kingdom
6
Frederic Thesiger, 2nd Baron Chelmsford
Adria Heath
Politician and Colonial Administrator
Early life[edit]
Thesiger was born on 12 August 1868 in London, England, the son of the Frederic Thesiger, 2nd Baron Chelmsford and Adria Heath. He was educated at Winchester College and Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating from the latter as Bachelor of Arts with first-class honours in law in 1891. Thesiger was elected as a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford (1892–1899).[1] In 1893 he was called to the Bar of the Inner Temple to practise law. He joined the army volunteer force as an officer in the 1st volunteer battalion in the Dorsetshire Regiment, and was promoted to captain on 13 September 1902.[2]
A keen cricketer, he captained the Oxford XI and also played for Middlesex.[3]
He was member of the London County Council between 1904 and 1905 and again as an alderman from 1913 and 1919.[4]
Governor of Queensland[edit]
On 9 April 1905, he succeeded as 3rd Baron Chelmsford upon his father's death and in July 1905 accepted his appointment as the Governor of Queensland in Australia. He arrived in Brisbane and was sworn in on 20 November. On 26 June 1906, Chelmsford was invested as a Knight Commander of Order of St Michael and St George.[5] His term was dominated by conflict between the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly and the emergence of three evenly divided parties in the lower house.[1]
Following the 1907 election, William Kidston, who had founded his own party, became Premier of Queensland with Labor support. The legislative council, then being an appointed chamber, then refused Kidston's legislative programs on electoral reforms and wage-fixing.[6] Kidston then made a request to Chelmsford to appoint enough members to the Council in order to get his legislation through. Chelmsford refused, on the grounds that he did not have a sufficient mandate from the people to make such demands. Kidston resigned in protest and Chelmsford commissioned the Leader of the Opposition, Robert Philp, who formed a ministry, which was promptly defeated in the assembly. Chelmsford then granted Philp a dissolution, though the parliament was only six months old. Because Supply was denied by Kidston, Chelmsford stepped in and used the reserve powers to ensure that supply was passed until the election.[6]
Kidston was returned to office in the 1908 election. The new assembly passed a motion criticising Chelmsford's action and there was widespread speculation that he would be recalled. However, nothing came of this. Despite the admission that their representative had been mistaken in granting a dissolution, the Colonial Office and the British government remained in his favour. Chelmsford's term expired just after Kidston resigned from the Labor Government and formed a coalition with Philp's Conservatives.[6]
Lord Chelmsford married Frances Charlotte Guest (22 March 1869 – 24 September 1957), daughter of Ivor Guest, 1st Baron Wimborne, and Lady Cornelia Henrietta Maria Spencer-Churchill, on 27 July 1894 at St. George's Church, Hanover Square. They had six children:
Lady Chelmsford was made a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire in 1917 and was also invested with the Imperial Order of the Crown of India.
Lord Chelmsford died of coronary vascular disease on 1 April 1933, aged 64. He was succeeded by his younger son (his eldest son having been killed in action in Mesopotamia in 1917[21]) and survived by his four daughters. On his death the Brisbane Courier noted that "the whole Empire suffers the loss of a man who, above all things, desired to be a true servant of the people."[22]
He was the first cousin of the actor Ernest Thesiger. He was the uncle of the explorer Wilfred Thesiger (1910-2003). In the 1982 film Gandhi, the role of Chelmsford was played by Sir John Mills.[23]
In their honour, the New South Wales government launched a new ferry, to be known as the Lady Chelmsford in 1910 as a Sydney Harbour Ferry. The Lady Chelmsford continued working the harbour until 1971 when she was sold. In Melbourne she operated as a cruising restaurant before being taken out of service and sold in 2005. Again becoming a restaurant, she sank at her moorings in February 2008 and after a protracted battle over insurance, the ship was deemed unsalvageable and broken up underwater in mid-2011.[24]