Gerald Strickland, 1st Baron Strickland

Gerald Strickland, 1st Baron Strickland

Gerald Strickland, 1st Baron Strickland , 6th Conte della Catena (born May 24, 1861 in Valletta , † August 22, 1940 in Attard , Malta ) was a British colonial official, politician and Maltese politician and Prime Minister of Malta.

Studies and early political activities in Malta

After studying in Malta , Great Britain and Italy , he took part in Malta's political life at an early age. He was the companion of a delegation led by Fortunato Mizzi , who asked for the establishment of a legislative assembly in London. The result of this request was the new constitution of 1887. In the same year he was elected to the government council as representative of the nobility and landowners. From 1888 to 1902 he was chief government secretary.

Strickland was also the owner and director of a printing company and the newspaper " The Times of Malta ".

British colonial official and politician

In 1902 Gerald Strickland joined the British Colonial Office . First he was governor of the Leeward Islands in the West Indies until 1904 . Then Strickland went to Australia and was successively governor of Tasmania (1904 to 1909), Western Australia (1909 to 1912) and New South Wales (1912 to 1917). In 1924 he was also a representative of the Conservative Party in the British House of Commons for the Lancaster constituency .

Opposition leader and prime minister

After the British government had given Malta self-government and Strickland returned to Malta, he founded the Anglo-Maltese Party in 1921. In the same year it joined forces with the Maltese Constitutional Party (MCP) to form the Conservative Party (CP) under his chairmanship. Strickland was the leader of the opposition.

In the parliamentary elections in 1927, his CP obtained a majority and was able to end the so-called “compact” alliance with the Labor Party . From August 1927 to July 1932, Strickland was Prime Minister as the successor to Ugo Pasquale Mifsud . The major events of his tenure were the establishment of St. Luke's Hospital and a sensitive rift between the Prime Minister and the Senate. The attempt to curtail the power of the Senate with the help of a letters patent brought Strickland into conflict with the church authorities and led to the constitutional dispute in 1930.

After the election defeat against Mifsud in July 1932 he was again leader of the opposition. He retained this office until the provisional termination of self-government in November 1933. After the renewed guarantee of self-government by the new constitution, he was elected chairman of the elected majority faction in the government council in 1939.

Marriages and offspring

His first marriage was in 1890 with Lady Edeline Sackville (1870-1918), daughter of the 7th Earl De La Warr . With her he had seven children:

• Reginald Strickland (1892-1893)
• Mary Christina Strickland (1896–1970)
• Cecilia Victoria Strickland (* 1897)
• Mabel Edeline Strickland (* 1899)
• Margaret Angela Strickland (1900-1901)
• Walter Strickland (1901–1902)
• Henrietta May Caribbea Strickland (1903-1975)

After the death of his first wife, he married Margaret Hulton in 1926. The marriage remained childless.

Nobility title

In 1875, from an uncle of his mother's, he inherited the Maltese title of Count Conte della Catena, o sia delli Mori , which was given to his ancestor Pietro Gaetano Perdicomati-Bologna in 1745 by the Maltese Grand Master Manuel Pinto de Fonseca , as well as an associated property in Malta.

On January 19, 1928, the hereditary title Baron Strickland , of Sizergh Castle in the County of Westmorland , was raised to him in the Peerage of the United Kingdom . The title was associated with a seat in the British House of Lords .

Since he left no sons, the baron title expired on his death on August 22, 1940. The property and the title of Count von Catena fell to Thomas Hornyold-Strickland, the son of his eldest daughter.

Awards

• Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (1889)
• Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (1913)

literature

• GP Walsh: Strickland, Sir Gerald (1861–1940) . In: Douglas Pike (Ed.): Australian Dictionary of Biography . Volume 12. Melbourne University Press, Carlton (Victoria) 1990, ISBN 0-522-84437-5 (English).

Web links

• Biography on the homepage of the Maltese government
• List of offices in rulers.org
• Composition of the Maltese Parliament from 1921 to 2003
• Gerald Strickland, 1st and last Baron Strickland at ThePeerage.com

predecessor	Office	successor
Sir Henry Jackson	Governor of the Leeward Islands 1902–1904	Sir Clement Knollys
Nicola Sceberras Bologna	Conte della Catena 1875-1940	Thomas Hornyold-Strickland
New title created	Baron Strickland 1902-1940	Title expired