Gerard Smith

Sir Gerard Smith (born December 12, 1839 in London , England , † October 28, 1920 ibid) was a member of the English House of Commons and Governor of Western Australia .

Life

Smith was born in 1839 to Martin Tucker Smith, a politician, banker, and director of the East India Company , and his wife Louisa. After studying at Eton College , he joined the British Army and served in Canada . In 1871 he married Isabella Chatelaine Hamilton. After he retired in 1874 with the rank of lieutenant colonel from the army, he took a post in the banking house of his father, the Samuel Smith, Bros & Co. From 1883 to 1885 he was a member of the English lower house for the Liberal Party .

In 1895 he was appointed governor of Western Australia and arrived in Perth in December of that year . During his tenure, a gold rush began in the areas around Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie . Smith himself invested in investments and speculative transactions in the environment of the gold rush, which was his undoing. In 1899 he was convicted by a court of having abused his position as governor to influence the stock prices of companies in which he was involved.

Smith left Perth in May 1900 . In the following time he worked as a manager of several investment funds and the Brazilian Saõ Paulo Railway Co. 1920 he died in London.

Awards

• Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (1895)

swell

• FK Crowley: Smith, Sir Gerard (1839-1920) . In: Douglas Pike (Ed.): Australian Dictionary of Biography . Melbourne University Press, Carlton (Victoria) 1966–2012 (English).