Archibald Weigall

Sir Archibald Weigall, around 1922

Sir William Ernest George Archibald Weigall, 1st Baronet KCMG (born December 8, 1874 in London , England , † June 3, 1952 in Ascot ) was a conservative English politician and governor of the Australian state of South Australia .

Life

After studying at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester , Weigall became an estate administrator. He later joined the army and served in the Second Boer War , for which he was honored with the Queen's South Africa Medal and promoted to major . In 1910 he married Grace Emily, Baroness von Echardstein, the only daughter of a furniture manufacturer and heir to a fortune of over two million pounds . From 1911 to 1920 Weigall was a member of the Conservative Party in the House of Commons .

In 1919 he was offered the office of Governor of South Australia. Weigall accepted and arrived in Adelaide in the spring of 1920 . Contrary to previous assurances from the Colonial Office , he found that he had to pay his employees himself, so that after deducting all costs he was left with a salary of only £ 300. Weigall was also angry that funds were being shifted from one department to another within the government without first consulting parliament. The ministers also spent money without waiting for Parliament's authorization. In 1921 he described the governor's office as anachronism and the power-sharing between the Commonwealth and the former colonies as chaotic. Weigall resigned as early as December 1921 for personal and financial reasons. He left Australia with his wife in April 1921.

Weigall later invested in Australian food companies and became director of Clarence Hatry's investor group . In the 1929 stock market crash , he lost all of his invested assets and was subsequently dependent on his wife's inheritance.

In 1920 he was accepted as a Knight Commander in the Order of St. Michael and St. George . In the 1930s he became chairman of the Royal Empire Society and the Royal Veterinary College and King of Arms of the Order of St. Michael and St. George. In 1938 he was appointed Baronet , of Woodhall Spa in the County of Lincoln. After his wife died in 1950, Weigall died on June 3, 1952 in Ascot. He left a daughter.

Trivia

British actor Jake Weber is a great-grandson of Weigall.

literature

• PA Howell: Weigall, Sir William Ernest George Archibald (1874-1952) . In: Douglas Pike (Ed.): Australian Dictionary of Biography . Melbourne University Press, Carlton (Victoria) 1966–2012 (English).