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Into the Promised Land ‘Australia has passed through her period of probation and has entered into the promised land of the heritage of a nation.’ 1 For Queensland, it had been a long journey to federation’s promised land, beginning in 1859 when its first governor, Sir George Bowen, led the way out of the wilderness. He found Queensland a dependant and neglected part of New South Wales and fashioned it into the new status of a self-governing colony. The infant colony grew and grew until, in 1901, it became a state of the Commonwealth of Australia. When Queensland’s ninth governor, Sir Herbert Chermside, took his oath of office on 24 March 1902, it had only been 42 years since Sir George Bowen the first governor, had sworn to serve the Queen and Queensland. Through those years, Queensland’s population had multiplied more than twenty fold, to over half a million (277,003 males, but only 221,126 females.)2 For the first time, in 1901 the majority of Queenslanders were people born in Australia.3 Settlement had spread from Moreton Bay into the remotest places; industry and society had blossomed. There had been setbacks, stops and starts, but there were more forward steps than backward ones. Through all those years, the governors had been powerful influences in Queensland affairs. In the beginning they had been very directly involved in actual government. That role receded (but never entirely disappeared) as Queenslanders gained confidence and experience in the management of their own affairs. Other roles did not recede – if anything, they became more important as the colony grew. ‘The Office of Governor was an integral part of the life and development of the colony ... The Office gave continuity in the relationship between the colony of Queensland and the United Kingdom, and wove a substantial thread throughout the tapestry of colonial history. It provided a focus for social life and a significant point of reference for certain political and legal issues, and occasions made colourful by the pomp and circumstance of ceremony and ritual formality.’4 Above all, the governors were a focus for the celebration of Queensland identity and achievement. As the new colony grew, new communities, new enterprises
Left: Lord Chelmsford – aristocratic, intellectual, fond of music, a cricketer. He was not completely successful in Queensland, but he nevertheless rose to the illustrious position of Viceroy of India. Right: Lord Chelmsford (third from left, seated) at the opening of the Brisbane Exhibition in 1907.
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and new organisations of all kinds clamoured for vice-regal recognition. A governor’s visit to a new town or the identification of a governor with a good cause was more than just a benediction by a very important person. It was part of the process of Queenslanders recognising each other, being drawn into the Queensland family, being applauded for what they had already done and being encouraged in their future endeavours. It was a vital strand in the thread that bound Queenslanders together. As federation was being discussed in the 1890s, it had seemed to some people that the new states of Australia might not each need a governor of their own. There would be a Governor-General of Australia and that would be enough, some argued. The argument overlooked the fact that each state would still have its own government which had sovereign powers over its own areas of responsibility that had not been transferred to the new Commonwealth. The system of each state government was to be as before, a constitutional monarchy that needed to have a governor at its head. The argument also overlooked the fact that the people of each state, Queenslanders especially, still regarded themselves as very special and distinct people. Certainly they were Australians but even more certainly they were Queenslanders. Having their own governor certified and reinforced that. Federation made surprisingly little difference to the position of Queensland’s governors. While the colonies had agreed to surrender some of their powers to the new nation, in other respects the business of government within each colony, now state, would go on as it had before. It was quickly established that, notwithstanding federation, the state governors would be appointed by and would report to the United Kingdom government as before. They would not answer to the Governor-General and the state governors would continue to communicate directly with the United Kingdom government.5 Queensland’s governors after 1901 therefore were in the same position and carried out the same functions and exercised the same powers that their predecessors had done since 1859. It was their duty to summon and prorogue the parliament; they had the power to dissolve the Legislative Assembly, to grant or deny requests for elections, to appoint ministers, and to preside over the Executive Council as the body that gave formal effect to the decisions of the government. In these and other matters, the governors were expected to act on the advice of their ministers, but they retained a reserve power to act according to their own discretion. When they acted in a manner that was at variance from the advice of their ministers, governors were required to report the circumstances to the British government immediately. The governors also had the continuing responsibility to advise, encourage and warn their ministers. It was their duty to be watchful, to observe any departures from the integrity of the operation of government and to bring such departures to the attention of the responsible ministers. The governors were thus to be umpires, upholding the democratic system according to its rules. Those were the formal roles of the governors. There were also social and ceremonial roles, the vitally important functions of acknowledging and encouraging the achievements of Queensland people. Again, federation had no impact on these roles – Queenslanders continued to demand that they should be able to see their governors, no matter where they lived.
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Below, left: Lady Chelmsford, a progressive woman who worked hard to achieve better child health and education. Above, right: The dining room at Government House, ready for dinner guests, 1908. Centre, right: The drawing room at Government House, October 1907. Below, right: View through the hallway to the drawing room, Government House, October 1907.
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These were old arrangements, old certainties that the vast majority of Queenslanders were comfortable and content with. Having a governor was something that people understood, even if they did not give the subject very much thought. It was a reassurance of stability and continuity in a world that was otherwise full of daunting challenges and confusing changes. The year 1902 held more than its share of such challenges and changes. It provided ample proof that while the promised land had been entered, Queenslanders were not yet in paradise. Sir Herbert Chermside began his term as governor at the climax of a catastrophic drought, possibly the most severe and widespread natural disaster Australia has ever experienced. It was a calamity everywhere in the eastern half of the continent, but especially in Queensland because it was so dependent on pastoral and agricultural production. In 1901, about 30% of Queensland workers earned their wages in the pastoral and agricultural industries,6 while the state’s revenues were proportionately reliant on the annual wool clip. After 1903, government revenue was also diminished by a decline in mineral production, everywhere except on the Mount Morgan field.7 Wool continued to be the main economic generator, despite price fluctuations and droughts. The 1902 drought had actually begun from 1896 and persisted until about 1905, with variations from district to district. In 1892 Queensland had almost 21 million sheep; by 1902 there were only 7.2 million left.8 The state’s flock did not recover to the 1892 number until 1913. The state’s cattle herd was not quite so badly affected, but it probably declined by at least 40%. Agricultural production was drastically reduced, although not for as long as the drought prevailed on the inland plains. From the 1880s, fencing, artesian water and closer settlement had all made for more intensive stocking, but the drought was a salutary warning to Queensland that its natural capacity for expansion of the pastoral and agricultural industries was not limitless. Sir Herbert Chermside could have been forgiven if he had never given much thought to droughts before he came to Australia, but he was soon to find that in Queensland even governors were governed by the seasons. Chermside was born in England in 1850. He went to school at Eton, then achieved brilliant results at the Royal Military Academy. He graduated top of his year and was commissioned in the Royal Engineers in 1870. He then had a series of military and consular postings in the Middle East before taking command of the British forces on Crete in 1897. He then went to the Boer war. He was steadily promoted, eventually to Major General in 1898. He was knighted in 1897. In 1899 he married Geraldine Webb, whose brother had come to Queensland, served in its army and gone to South Africa with the Queensland local forces.9 Geraldine was then 29 years of age, ten years younger than her husband. In December 1901, Chermside’s appointment to succeed Lord Lamington as Governor of Queensland was announced. News of the appointment was well received locally, with news reports emphasising the brilliance of Chermside’s military career. Premier Robert Philp lauded Chermside’s suitability and stated that the new governor had agreed to accept the same salary as previous governors, five thousand pounds a year.10 From this salary, the governor had to meet the costs of entertainment at Government House and the wages of personal staff. Perhaps, when he raised the matter, Philp was already
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sensitive to the political reality that the governor’s salary might soon become a contentious issue. There were two novel features surrounding Chermside’s arrival in Brisbane and his installation as governor. He and Lady Chermside arrived in the capital by train from Sydney via Toowoomba,11 instead of coming by sea to Moreton Bay and then by government launch up the river to the city as all their predecessors had done. Instead of naval guns firing a salute, ear-splitting fog warning signals were used to announce the vice-regal train’s approach to Central Station in Brisbane’s Ann Street. The Chermsides were also the first, and perhaps the only, vice-regal couple to be welcomed to Queensland by a citizens’ reception. The reception was paid for by public subscription and organised by volunteers. It was noted that there were hardly any ladies present, probably because the gentlemen economised by leaving their wives at home.12 It was a sign of the necessarily frugal times. The Queensland government was facing a deficit of 1.5 million pounds, at a time when revenue had
Left: Lord Chelmsford – an intellectual. Below: Lady Chermside; Sir Herbert Chermside on right. He was ‘a plain little general with a big moustache.’
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shrunk because of the drought, and because some revenue sources had been surrendered to the new Commonwealth government. Drastic measures, including public service retrenchments and even the introduction of income tax, were being debated in the parliament. Chermside immediately sensed that his salary, higher than any other paid by the Queensland government, would be a focus for public scrutiny and criticism. He almost immediately offered to accept a 15% salary cut. This was not then accepted by the government, but the salary was later reduced to three thousand pounds a year, then to two thousand. Chermside accepted these cuts on the condition that the reductions would relieve him from all obligations to entertain at Government House. The salary cuts took the heat out of the issue and Chermside was admired in many quarters for graciously accepting the reductions when he was under no legal obligation to do so. Premier Philp said that the governor ‘had acted in the most honourable manner in thus recognising the financial exigencies of the State.’13 However, there were some who grumbled that Chermside had profited from the arrangements because in net terms he was better off with the lower salary but without the obligation to entertain. Chermside resented the criticism. It reinforced the impression already forming in his mind that there was public derogation of the office of the governor and that there had been a diminution of its status since federation and the creation of the new office of Governor-General. As a career military officer who had risen to the highest ranks, Chermside no doubt felt it was particularly unfortunate that as Governor of Queensland he would no longer have the nominal command of the state’s military forces, which had been absorbed into the Commonwealth forces in 1901.14 Federation had brought other changes, in vexatious areas that had been difficult for all the colonial governors. The Commonwealth parliament had moved quickly to pass laws entrenching the national aspiration for a ‘White Australia.’ Immigration of ‘coloured’ people was to be so severely restricted
Above: Lord Chelmsford (centre, front) and members of the Automobile Club at an outing, Brisbane, April 1908.
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that it was virtually prohibited. That ended the debate and division about Chinese immigration. There was to be no more recruitment of Pacific Islander labour after 1904 and repatriation of islanders from Queensland was to begin immediately. The sugar industry was to be subsidised to make the use of white labour viable. In 1902, only 16 per cent of sugar was produced by white labour; by 1909 almost all sugar was produced by white men.15 Federation had subdued the demands for regional separation in the sugar areas, taking another contentious item off the list of matters about which governors were exhorted when they travelled in the north. In October 1902, the Chermsides suffered further unhappiness when a son was still-born.16 By now, Queensland seemed to be an unlucky place for them. Lady Chermside was described as ‘a sweet and homely woman, very delicate in health.’ After the still-birth, she withdrew from vice-regal activity to a considerable degree and allowed her sister-in-law, Mrs Webb, to deputise for her on many occasions.17 At about this time, only six months after his arrival, Chermside foreshadowed to the state’s political leaders his intention to resign before the expiration of his term. He used his wife’s ill health to justify his decision but it is clear that he was unhappy in Queensland. However, Chermside did his duty. He was that sort of man. He was, according to Lady Tennyson, wife of a South Australian governor who later became Governor-General, ‘a very short plain little man with a biggish moustache.’18 He was most at home on the military parade ground and he obviously found it difficult to unbend anywhere else. He was a poor public speaker who tried to cover his inadequacies by including what he thought were learned references in his speeches. Sometimes he was found out, as when he presented a paper to the Royal Geographical Society. When he finished speaking, a press reporter approached the governor’s private secretary to ask for a copy of the speech notes. The reporter then felt a hand on his elbow and heard the voice of Premier Sir Hugh Nelson saying ‘Don’t bother, you will find it all in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.’19
Above: Horses and buggy ready to start from Inverleigh station, west of Normanton, during Lord Chelmsford’s epic outback tour in 1908.
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The governor was more comfortable in May 1902, when he reviewed the troops of the Queensland Battalion of the Australian Commonwealth Horse. The troops had served in South Africa as the Queensland Mounted Infantry before their absorption into the Commonwealth forces. It was the first time that the men had paraded in their new uniforms. A highlight of the parade in the Domain was Chermside’s presentation of the insignia of Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George to Colonel Harry Chauvel for his distinguished service in South Africa with the First Queensland Mounted Infantry.20 A few weeks later, on 27 June 1902, Chermside appeared in his own resplendent British army uniform to address a huge ‘peace demonstration’ in Brisbane to mark the end of the Boer War. He reminded the crowd that he had fought in the war, which resulted in ‘one of the greatest victories that has ever occurred under the British flag ... a triumph of abstract principles ... an earnest [pledge or part-payment] of the Anglo-Saxon responsibility to promote, through the agency of moral energy the interests of that universal peace and goodwill amongst mankind which is the truly democratic teaching of that gospel of which our civilisation is the outcome.’21 In May 1903, Sir Herbert toured Queensland’s central-west and north-west. He travelled by train and was struck, between Winton and Hughenden, by ‘the spectacle of the country for miles and miles south-westward of Hughenden [which] is even more dreary than that of the permanent desert and forcibly obtrudes the fact that the last general drought is not everywhere a thing of the past.’ He advocated ‘palliative measures,’ including the extension of light railways so that stock could be moved from drought stricken districts even after stock routes had closed.22 From September 1903, Chermside skated on the thin ice at the edge of political instability and constitutional crisis. Premier Robert Philp had won the 1902 election by eight seats but he did not have a tight hold on his majority. Philp resigned and Chermside sent for Billy Browne, Labour Opposition Leader, and invited him to form a government. Browne declined the offer, believing that Labour should wait until it was in a stronger position before attempting to take office. Chermside then commissioned Warwick newspaperman Arthur Morgan to form a government. Morgan was then Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, but it was, on the face of it, a strange decision on Chermside’s part because Morgan had no party backing and had never been a minister. It became apparent that Morgan was a caretaker for prominent Labour man William Kidston, who was to become Premier in 1906 at the head of a coalition government.23 In the meantime, there was a recurrence of the instability that had plagued Queensland politics since separation. In June 1904, provoked by yet another debate about his salary, Chermside submitted his resignation, but offered to postpone his departure until after the political situation settled down. Finally, on 30 September 1904, Chermside advised the government that he was going – he would take pre-retirement leave and would not return. Lady Chermside had already left for England. On 10 October, a farewell lunch for the governor was held on the Lucinda while it cruised the Brisbane River, with 90 ‘gentlemen’ aboard. Chermside then proceeded from Government House to Central Station. From there he went by train to Toowoomba, to spend his last night in Queensland at Gabbinbar, the residence of Sir Hugh and Lady Nelson.24
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Chermside had been in office in Queensland for just two and a half years. He returned to England and gained further promotion in the army before his death in 1929. He had married for the second time in 1920, following the death of Geraldine in 1910. Sir Hugh Nelson, President of the Legislative Council, was now to act as governor for 13 months, until Queensland’s tenth governor, Lord Chelmsford arrived in November 1905. Nelson was one of four notable local men who acted as governor for extended periods between 1883 and 1915. The others were Sir Arthur Palmer (for five extended periods between 1883 and 1896); Sir Samuel Griffith (1901-02), and Sir Arthur Morgan (in 1909 and in 1914-15). In a later era, any one of these men could have been appointed governor in his own right. Their biographies illuminate the lives of typical men who led Queensland through the critical period from the 1880s to 1914.
Below left: Sir Hugh Nelson, Premier of Queensland 1893-1898, and Administrator in 1904-05. Centre: Entrepreneur and Premier, Sir Robert Philp. Right: Sir Arthur Morgan – newspaper man, Premier and Administrator.
Palmer was one of the last of the early breed of Queensland’s leading pastoralists cum political leaders. Born in Ireland in 1819, he came to Sydney in 1838 and was a New England district station manager by 1840. In 1863 he took up Beaufort station on the Belyando River in Central Queensland. In 1868 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly and he there aligned himself with pastoralists’ groupings. In 1870, at a time of great political instability, he was asked by Governor Blackall to form a government. He did this and held office until 1874. Later, he became associated with Thomas McIlwraith, through alliances in politics, business and marriage. Palmer was later tainted by financial scandals, although he was not disgraced in the way that McIlwraith was. He was knighted in 1881 and became President of the Legislative Council. In that capacity he acted as Administrator in the absence of the governor; in 1895 he was appointed Queensland’s first lieutenant-governor and acted as governor in the interval between the departure of Norman and the arrival of Lamington. Palmer died in 1898.25 The mercurial Sir Samuel Griffith was perhaps the most outstanding jurist and political figure that Queensland has produced. Born in modest circumstances
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in Wales in 1845, he came to Ipswich with his family in 1853. He was a brilliant and wide-ranging student at Sydney University before going to the Bar in Queensland in 1867. Within nine years he was a Queen’s Counsel. In 1872, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly and two years later became Attorney General. It was the first of a string of ministerial offices, crowned by the premiership in 1883. In the same year he became a leading figure in the federation movement. In 1891, he was very largely responsible for the first draft of the proposed Australian constitution. In 1893 he became Queensland’s Chief Justice, a position he held for ten years before he became the first Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia. Vain and ambitious for the prestige of high office, Griffith had been responsible for the change in 1898 which provided that the Chief Justice, rather than the President of the Legislative Council, should hold the dormant commission to act as Queensland’s lieutenant-governor in the absence of the governor. That change enabled Griffith to act as governor in 1901.26
Sir Hugh Nelson was born in Scotland in 1833, came to Queensland with his family in 1853 and immediately set about gaining pastoral experience. Before long, he had extensive pastoral holdings of his own. He was first elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1883, beginning a political career during which he combined ‘McIlwraith’s political largesse and entrepreneurial flair, Griffith’s liberal legalisms and the wealthy’s fear of Labour and the lower orders.’ Before he was appointed to the Legislative Council and elected its President in 1898, he held a diversity of portfolios and was premier for five years. He was knighted in 1896 and died in 1906. ‘During years of crisis, he was the linchpin in Queensland politics.’27 Sir Arthur Morgan acted as governor before the arrival of Sir William MacGregor in 1909 and again after MacGregor’s departure in 1914. He was born near Warwick in 1856 and took over the Warwick Argus newspaper on his father’s death in 1878. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1887; became Speaker in 1899 and held that position until he was unexpectedly asked to form a government in 1903. In 1906, following the death of Sir Hugh Nelson, he resigned the premiership in favour of William Kidston and accepted the
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Left: A gathering at Mackay, Lord and Lady Chelmsford on right of landing at top of steps. Centre: At the Maryborough Boys’ Grammar School speech day, December 1906. Lord Chelmsford standing, third from right in second row; Lady Chelmsford (holding flowers) seated second from right in front row. Right: Lord Chelmsford was a model governor in many respects but he mishandled a constitutional crisis and exposed himself to strong public criticism.
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presidency of the Legislative Council, an office he held until his death in 1916. He was knighted in 1907.28 Beside these robust colonial men who had thrust their way to the top of the rough and tumble that was colonial politics, the refined Lord Chelmsford must have seemed a delicate anachronism. However, the news of his appointment was welcomed in the belief that there was much in Chelmsford’s personal background and career to indicate that he would be a more useful and interesting governor than the lacklustre Chermside. There was also gratification that the Chelmsfords were wealthy people, well able to spend their own money to restore Government House to its place at the pinnacle of the state’s social life. Lord Chelmsford was a mild mannered aristocrat, a gentle and reflective man who loved music, books, thoughtful discussion – and cricket. He was the son of General Frederic29 Thesiger, and the grandson of a man who had been Lord Chancellor. In 1879, General Thesiger had led the British forces in South Africa to the most inglorious defeat in British military history, against the Zulus at the battle of Isandlwana. The General was recalled after the defeat, but he rescued his career with a war-winning victory over the Zulus before his replacement arrived. General Thesiger, the second Baron Chelmsford, died in 1905 and his son Frederic John Napier Thesiger thereupon became the third Baron Chelmsford.30 His accession to the peerage effectively meant that he would have to retire from the Bar and seek a career in public service. The offer, made in July 1905, to go to Queensland to become its governor, was therefore very timely. Queensland’s Lord Chelmsford was born in London in 1868. He was a keen and successful student at Winchester school and then at Oxford, graduating with first class honours in law in 1891 and then obtaining a Master of Arts in 1894. He was a good cricketer, playing for Oxford and occasionally for his county, Middlesex. In 1894 he married Frances Guest, a cousin of Winston Churchill and a daughter of the wealthy industrialist Lord Wimborne. Chelmsford became a barrister and developed a successful practice in the specialised parliamentary jurisdiction. At the same time, he was a member of the London County Council and several school boards, where he was closely involved in the reorganisation of the London schools system.31 When news of his appointment as governor reached Queensland on 26 July 1905, the Brisbane Courier obtained a comment from its London correspondent, ‘Lord Chelmsford gives one an altogether favourable impression of his personality. He will easily fit into his new office, which will be the beginning of a new career ... he has entered the colonial service with some deliberation and can hope for substantial promotion in it. He may safely be credited with unusual ability, as well as energy. ... Lord Chelmsford is a tall, clean shaven, handsome man, retaining a good deal of the Oxford athlete in his stride and the set of his shoulders. He has an agreeable voice and genial manner. In short, he appears to have all the qualities necessary to win ready popularity among the Australian people. Both he and Lady Chelmsford have strong musical tastes and have experience in the work of several choral societies and glee clubs [singing groups]. They have heard with some special pleasure of the keen interest taken in music by the Brisbane people ... The new governor and his lady have five pretty children, all of them sturdy enough to bear without risk the change from
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England to the warmer climate of Queensland.’32 Lady Chelmsford was later described as ‘a woman of infinite charm with great intellectual gifts.’33 The Chelmsfords sailed to Sydney on the ship Macedonia. On 30 November 1905, the Chelmsfords arrived in Moreton Bay aboard the coastal steamer Wodonga, which had brought them on from Sydney. There was a return to time honoured procedures when the Wodonga was met in the Bay by a party of dignitaries who came from Brisbane on the Lucinda. The Chelmsfords transferred to the Lucinda, which then proceeded upriver to Petrie Bight in Brisbane. Strenuous efforts had been made to decorate the town with greenery and bunting but ‘it rained steadily all day and the spectacular effect of the arrangements that had been made for the welcome was much marred.’34 There was a procession to Government House, where Lord Chelmsford became Queensland’s tenth governor when he was sworn in by Chief Justice Sir Pope Cooper. The Chelmsfords had a good start to their three and a half years in Queensland. The drought had broken by 1905 and there was now to be a series of generally good seasons and good commodity prices until toward the end of 1925. Confidence and progress returned, so did a feeling that it was permissible to enjoy life. With the revival of prosperity there came a renewal of interest in and support for cultural activities. The Chelmsfords led the way in that movement. They set a new tone for the considered involvement of governors and their wives in social issues and cultural activities. The Public Library of Queensland and the Brisbane Technical College had been opened by Sir Herbert Chermside in 1902.35 On 18 December 1905, Chelmsford opened what was then called the National Art Gallery, in a space set aside on the third floor of the government’s Executive Building in Brisbane. The art collection had been assembled by trustees over some years, but never previously had a home.36 In June 1906, Brisbane was enhanced when Lord Chelmsford unveiled a statue of Queen Victoria in what was then called the Executive Gardens, now Queen’s Park. The governor said on that occasion ‘when your children ask you what is the meaning of this statue of Queen Victoria one answer ... is that the position of the Sovereign of Great Britain changed during the reign of Queen Victoria. The Queen was the first to establish the true functions of the Sovereign in a Constitutional Government – and Australia, when she was free to choose her type of government, deliberately chose that of the Mother Country. ... there is such a feeling of common interest and common sympathy throughout the territories of the Empire that the Queen came to be regarded as the symbol of unity and this could only be because the Queen had won the trust and confidence of her people.’37 The Chelmsfords hosted musical soirees and glee club gatherings at Government House. Lord Chelmsford was a capable cellist; his wife was an accomplished pianist. They encouraged the Government House staff to form their own glee club and provided musical accompaniment for it. Lady Chelmsford was a talented watercolourist. The Chelmsford children were brought up according to advanced educational ideas and they were commonly taken to public functions to prepare them for the roles that would almost certainly be their lot in life. The Chelmsfords were strong supporters of the Children’s Hospital and on at least one occasion, in 1907, they threw open the grounds of Government
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Above left: Three of the Chelmsford children in the garden at Gabbinbar, Toowoomba – from left: Fred, Andrew and Bridget Thesiger. Below left: Interior, Brisbane Institute of Social Service nursery/kindergarten, opened in an old tobacco factory on the corner of Brunswick and Ivory Streets, Fortitude Valley, in 1907. Lady Chelmsford was President of the Institute, which became the Crèche and Kindergarten Association in 1910. Above right: Children and staff on the rooftop of the Brisbane Institute of Social Service, 1907.
House for a huge fête to raise funds for the hospital. The event was highly successful and the money raised was applied to a special ward that was named in recognition of Lady Chelmsford.38 They actively worked for the improvement of health facilities generally and for children’s health in particular. Lady Chelmsford was instrumental, with pioneer paediatrician Dr Alfred Jeffries-Turner, in the establishment of the Lady Chelmsford Milk Institute which worked to created a series of milk depots where clean milk was distributed for infants. She also played a major part in the establishment of the Mother’s Union, aimed at improving standards of ‘home life’ and child upbringing. Both the Chelmsfords were very actively involved in ‘rescue’ work for women and children. Lord Chelmsford strongly supported moves for the creation of a university for Queensland, making the point that a university was one of the essential institutions of statehood. In September 1906 he spoke at the annual meeting of the Queensland University Extension Standing Committee, saying that he was pleased to publicly identify with the committee as a signal to everyone that the achievement of a university was a matter of concern for the whole community and should never be a matter for political controversy.39 The Chelmsfords’ support for these and many other causes was more than merely formal. They set an example of practical involvement. By that example, and through their words whenever they had an opportunity to speak publicly, they emphasised that people who were fortunate enough to live comfortable lives had a moral duty to help those people who were not so well placed. Lord Chelmsford’s words were always far more than platitudes and they were extensively reported by the press. Lady Chelmsford was a modern woman who did not accept that she should walk in her husband’s shadow. She was a very competent public speaker and in her speeches ‘a deep womanly sympathy for those in need was the predominant note.’40 One social problem was too much for the governor. Commonwealth action to repatriate the last of the Pacific Islanders was intensifying in 1907. There was almost unanimous public approval for the repatriations but little concern for the consequent impact on the people who were being sent back to their islands, in some cases after many years in Queensland. By no means did all the islanders want to go home. On 22 July 1907, about 100 islanders publicly demonstrated in Brisbane, making it known that repatriation would
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impose very serious hardship on them. The ‘terrified Kanakas’ marched through Brisbane’s Queen Street and then into George Street, where they sought audiences with government ministers. The Home Secretary and other ministers declined to see them, so they marched to Government House and requested to see the governor. Chelmsford received their leaders, heard them out and then said all that he could say – ‘I am kindly disposed towards them and will do everything in my power provided the proper course in such a case is followed.’41 Through all this, the Chelmsfords found time to regularly visit even the most far flung parts of the state. Lady Chelmsford made a point of going with her husband wherever possible, taking every opportunity to encourage women and activities of special concern to them. However, she was not asked to accompany the governor on one remarkable expedition in 1908, when Lord Chelmsford went where no other governor had gone before.
In June 1908, the governor set out with his aide, Captain Verney, the brothers Joey and Colin Bell and three other men. The trip, by buggy, began on the western edge of the Atherton Tableland and proceeded from there to the most remote north-western areas of the state, to Camooweal and beyond. Everywhere they went there were welcomes and invariably a ball at night. At Cloncurry, the governor was able to note the revival of mining activity that had resulted from the extension of the railway line from Townsville via Richmond.42 In all, the party travelled more than 1,400 kilometres, over rough tracks or no tracks at all.43 The able, appealing and hard working Chelmsfords had not put a foot wrong in Queensland and it is therefore surprising that the governor stumbled when he had to deal with a difficult constitutional issue. The Colonial Office had always advised its governors to allow problems to work themselves out in the political arena as far as possible, so as to avoid the criticism that would invariably follow from the exercise of discretions and reserve powers.44 The problem for Chelmsford arose when the Legislative Council refused to pass Wages Boards bills proposed by the recently elected Premier Kidston. The premier advised the governor to appoint additional Legislative Councillors who would favour the bills and enable their passage. Chelmsford declined that advice and instead commissioned Robert Philp as premier and granted
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Philp a dissolution of the Legislative Assembly when he could not command a majority there. Kidston won the election, which was the first at which Queensland women were able to vote. The women had gained the franchise in Commonwealth elections in 1902, but it was not until 1905 that laws were passed to enable them to vote in state elections. Chelmsford was attacked in parliament and rebuked by the Colonial Office for his poor judgement. The Office said that he should have accepted the advice of Premier Kidston and had he done so there would have been no crisis and no political controversy about the actions of the governor.45 However, the incident was no setback to Chelmsford’s career. ‘Though the Colonial Office considered Chelmsford had erred, his acceptance of the financial burden of an Australian governorship, his intellectual ability and attention to the social duties of the office ensured that he retained the British government’s confidence.’ 46 Connections in high places were also a help, no doubt. Queenslanders were surprised and disappointed when it was announced in early 1909 that their governor would leave the state, a year before the expiry of his term, to become governor of New South Wales. The departure, on 26 May 1909, had one novel feature. The Chelmsfords left Government House in a motor car.
Left: The local reception committee waits to meet Lord Chelmsford, outside Cloncurry, in 1908. Above: Georgetown children form a goat escort for Lord Chelmsford during his far northern and western tour, 1908.
They did well in New South Wales. Lord Chelmsford established a close and effective working relationship with the state’s first Labour government. Many years later, there was astonishment in Labor (the spelling change had been formalised in 1912) circles when firebrand Labor premier Jack Lang appointed Chelmsford to be Agent-General for New South Wales in Britain. ‘He is a peer of the realm, he is not one of us, never can be, he is not dinkum’ said the critics. ‘He is just as much a Labor man as any of us here,’ Lang retorted.47 By then, Chelmsford had served as First Lord of the Admiralty in the British Labour government headed by Ramsay MacDonald. Lord and Lady Chelmsford returned to England in March 1913. When the Great War broke out in 1914, Chelmsford rejoined his Dorset Territorials regiment and went with it to India. In January 1916 he was appointed Viceroy of India, one of the most elevated and envied positions in the whole of the Empire. He proved his mettle in that role, working to develop a plan for reforms that eventually resulted in constitutional progress for India. In 1921, the Chelmsfords returned to England, where Lord Chelmsford died in 1933. Lady Chelmsford survived until 1957. The couple had given outstanding service to Queensland, not least because they set an example of thoughtful involvement in community affairs. At a farewell banquet in Brisbane, Lord Chelmsford had said ‘the northern state is yet, relatively, only at the beginning of things. Spaciousness of territory as yet unoccupied is matched by amplitude of resources still awaiting development. To translate promise into performance, character means more than either numbers or opportunities. The essential foundation is the preservation of ideals and the maintenance of fortitude.’48 That was to prove good advice for the years of war and grief that were soon to come.
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