Henry Bartle Frere

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Portrait Sir Henry Bartle Freres

Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere, 1st Baronet GCB GCSI PC (born March 29, 1815 in Clydach in Brecknockshire , Wales , † May 29, 1884 in Wimbledon ) was a British diplomat.

Youth and education

Henry Bartle Edward Frere was the sixth son and ninth child of Edward Frere, manager of the Clydach ironworks, and Mary Anne Frere, née. Green, born at Clydach House, Llanelly , in Wales. He was the grandson of John Frere and nephew of the poet and writer John Hookham Frere . In 1822 the family moved near Bath, mainly to get a better education for their children than was possible in the remote district of Clydach. Adversely, they had lost much of their fortune and moved into a small house called Widcombe Cottage near Prior Park, where they lived for five years. Their cottage was destroyed by fire and the family found a new home in the Norfolk Buildings, Bath. In 1833 they moved to the Bitton Rectory. Bartle Frere was twelve years old when he and his brother Richard were sent to Bath Grammar School as day students , which had earned a good reputation and had Sir Sydney Smith and Sir Edward Parry among its former students. In 1832, at the age of 17, he was nominated by Mr. Astell, MP for Bedfordshire and Chairman of the Court of Directors for Haileybury College of the East India Company . Frere owed his knowledge of Greek and Latin as well as the basis of oriental languages ​​to his school and Haileybury. As a boy he learned to draw quickly and accurately. His letters home were often adorned with drawings of people and landscapes, later also with carefully drawn plans and maps. He kept this habit until the end of his life and he carried a drawing pad and pen everywhere in his pocket.

He studied at Haileybury for 1½ years and won medals and prizes in several subjects. He graduated from college with honors ("highly distinguished") in December 1833 and was named best on the list of students. He chose Bombay (now Mumbai) as his future job in India because his brother William was already working there.

In India

He left the port of Falmouth on May 3, 1834 with the Firefly for Malta , no further ship sailed at that time. He spent a month in his uncle Hookham Frere's house, The Pieta , which housed his excellent library and collection of pictures. Here Frere began to learn Arabic under his teacher Joseph Wolff , a well-known traveler, and after a month, according to Wolff, he reached the level of knowledge "that he was able to get by in Egypt". He sailed to Alexandria on July 7th with the Greek brig Corriere . On the crossing he met four men who also wanted to go to Bombay, and they decided to travel together. They reached Cairo with a local boat . They had some adventures to endure before they reached the coast and found a ship to India.

After he had passed his language test, he became assistant for tax revenue in Poona (now Pune) in 1835 . In 1842 he became private secretary to Sir George Arthur , Governor of Bombay. Two years later he became political resident at the court of the Raja Shahji of Satara . With the death of the Rajah in 1848, he administered the province before and after its formal annexation in 1849.

In 1850 he was made a British resident in Sindh and as such did excellent service during the Sepoy uprising , for which the government appointed him commander of the Order of Bath in 1859 .

Portrait shot of Sir Henry Bartle Frere

In 1862 he was given the post of governor of Bombay , which he held for five years, after which he returned to Europe. He was later sent to Zanzibar by the British government to persuade the Sultan Barghasch ibn Said to abolish the slave trade . Frere arrived in Zanzibar in January 1873 and, after the Sultan was intimidated by the appearance of British warships, brought about the conclusion of a treaty on June 5, 1873. Frere reported on his Mission in Correspondence respecting Sir Bartle Frere's mission to the East-coast of Africa, 1872-73 (London 1873).

On his return from Zanzibar, Frere was made Baronet , of Wimbledon in the County of Surrey, a member of the Privy Council , an honorary doctorate from the University of Cambridge and an honorary citizen of the City of London in 1874.

In South Africa

In 1875 he accompanied the Prince of Wales on his trip to India, and in January 1877 he went to southern Africa as Governor of the Cape Colony and High Commissioner for South Africa. Under his authority the annexation of the Transvaal was carried out in April 1877 ; but through this and through his energetic action against the King of the Zulu , Cetshwayo , in January 1879 he involved Great Britain in the dangerous Zulu War , which only ended victoriously in July .

His " imperialist " policy was heavily attacked in the British Parliament , and the government also disapproved of his arbitrary, sometimes contrary to instructions, even though it left him at his post in the Cape Colony. Frere wrote about it in Correspondence respecting affairs of Basutoland an the territories to the eastward of the Cape Colony Cont . (1882).

Statue on the Victoria Embankment , London

It was not until the fall of 1880 that William Ewart Gladstone recalled him at the urging of the Liberal Party after his efforts to unite the South African colonies of Great Britain into a confederation had failed.

Frere died on May 29, 1884 at Wimbledon near London and was buried in St Paul's Cathedral .

family

On October 10, 1844, he married Catherine Arthur (born circa 1821 in Honduras), daughter of Sir George Arthur, 1st Baronet , the governor of Bombay, and whose private secretary had been appointed two years earlier. They had five daughters:

  • Mary Eliza Isabella Frere (* 1845 in Bitton , Gloucestershire);
  • Catherine Frances Frere (* 1849 in East India );
  • Georgina Hamilton Chichester Frere (* around 1850 in East India);
  • Bartle Compton Arthur Frere (* 1855 in Paddington , Middlesex);
  • Eliza Frederica Jane Frere (* around 1857 in Wimbledon, London).

Since Frere had no sons, his baronet title expired on his death.

Honors

In the Cape Colony, the town of Mount Frere was named after him, the town of Lady Frere was named after his wife. The Mount Bartle Frere , the highest mountain in Australia's Queensland , is also named after Frere.

Photo gallery

  • Voyages of Sir Bartle Frere August 1877 - March 1878 and October 1878 - June 1879

  • Map section Natal and Transvaal - To illustrate the journeys of Sir Bartle Frere

More fonts

literature

William Browne Hockley: Pandurang Hàrì, Or, Memoirs of a Hindoo . In three volumes. Publisher: George B. Whittaker, 1826 (newer edition 1873)

Web links

Commons : Henry Bartle Frere  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John Martineau: Chapter I Life and Correspondence of the Right Hon. Sir Bartle Frere, Bart., GCB, FRS, etc. Volume I. Publisher: John Murray, London 1895
  2. ^ Haileybury, The East India College
  3. ↑ The slave laws of Zanzibar in: THE HOUSE SLAVERY IN EAST AFRICA HISTORICALLY AND POLITICALLY REPRESENTED by Dr. FRITZ WEIDNER PUBLICATIONS OF THE REICHS-KOLONIALAMTS No. 7 Publisher: Gunther Fischer, Jena 1915
  4. ^ Sir Bartle Frere, the new British High Commissioner delivers an ultimatum to Cetshwayo the Zulu king to disband his army - South Africa History
  5. ^ Arthur, George by Alexander John Arbuthnot Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 02
  6. ↑ / wiki / Frere, _Mary_Eliza_Isabella_% 28DNB12% 29 Frere, Mary Eliza Isabella by Frank Herbert Brown in: Dictionary of National Biography , 1912 supplement
  7. ^ Rootsweb. 1871 census - Frere household in Wimbledon
personal data
SURNAME Frere, Henry Bartle
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Frere, Henry Bartle Edward
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British colonial administrator
DATE OF BIRTH March 29, 1815
PLACE OF BIRTH Clydach , Brecknockshire , Wales
DATE OF DEATH May 29, 1884
Place of death Wimbledon , London