Uchter Knox, 5th Earl of Ranfurly

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Uchter Knox, 5th Earl of Ranfurly

Uchter John Mark Knox, 5th Earl of Ranfurly (born August 14, 1856 in Guernsey , † October 1, 1933 probably in Dungannon , Ireland ), was the 15th Governor of New Zealand .

Life

Uchter Knox was born as the second son and the last of three children on August 14, 1856 on the British Crown- owned island of Guernsey. His parents were Thomas Knox, 3rd Earl of Ranfurly , and Harriet Rimington , daughter of James Rimmington , a Yorkshire lawyer . Knox went to the Royal Navy as a cadet and did his service on HMS Britannia . At the age of 18 he resigned and attended Harrow College , London and Eton College in Eton . He then attended Trinity College , Cambridge , which he left without a degree.

With the death of his older brother Thomas Knox, 4th Earl of Ranfurly on May 10, 1875, he inherited the title of Earl of Ranfurly and subordinate title and thereby became a member of the British House of Lords . On February 10, 1880, he married Constance Elizabeth Caulfield , only child of James Caulfield, 7th Viscount Charlemont . The marriage produced four children, three daughters and one son. In 1883, the Tyrone and Fermanagh family estates were 9,647 and 506 acres, respectively, and together made a little over £ 11,200 a year. But after Knox returned from New Zealand in 1904, business went bad. In 1922 the inventory of the house was sold and the correspondence was transferred to the National Library of Ireland by his great-great-uncle John Knox , Major General and Irish politician . The house and the land were sold in 1927, but no later than with his death in 1933. Knox's wife Constance died on July 25, 1932. He himself died on October 1, 1933, at the age of 77, impoverished by his means.

Political and professional activity

Little is known of Knox's political and professional career prior to 1897, other than that he must have been doing business in Australia . An 1892 newspaper article by the Brisbane Courier states that he and other investors bought 200 acres of land in Mildura , Victoria , for the planting of subtropical fruits in 1888 and paid a visit to the farm in August 1892. It is also known that he was Lord-in-Waiting for Queen Victoria from 1895 to 1897 .

Governor of New Zealand

He was appointed governor of New Zealand on April 6, 1897, but did not take office until August 10, 1897. He arrived in New Zealand at a time when the governor's salary cuts made by Prime Minister Harry Atkinson were still in effect. Knox was forced to pay for part of his public appearances from his private assets. His threat to give up his post for this reason ultimately led to an increase in the governor's pay in 1900.

During his tenure, Knox knew how to convey the importance of New Zealand to the government in London and, through his public appearances and operations, to give the New Zealanders the feeling that the British Empire was behind them. He missed almost no farewell or arrival of warships, invited veterans to his governor's house, campaigned for the creation of houses for veterans, similar to London's Royal Hospital Chelsea , and organized public events in honor of war veterans and retired soldiers. All of this was very well received by the population and Knox was able to play a leading role in the social life of the country. He was so popular in the colony that the New Zealand Graphic and Ladies Journal named him the most popular governor New Zealand had seen by then.

Knox left New Zealand escorted by four ships across the port of Wellington on June 19, 1904, with enormous public sympathy and a spectacle that the colony had never seen before. What was special about the departure, however, was that for the first time a successor governor was present to hand over the official duties before the departure of the outgoing governor. This was also honored accordingly by the public. In New Zealand you can still find Ranfurly as a place in Otago and the famous Ranfurly Shield trophy , which Knox donated to the New Zealand Rugby Football Union in 1904 , as well as numerous houses, organizations, clubs and street names bearing Ranfurly in his honor. In addition, Ranfurly Point , a rocky cape in the Antarctic , is named after him.

Back in the UK

Back in the UK, Knox was appointed to the Privy Council for Ireland on August 23, 1905 . Between 1905 and 1914 he returned to Australia to his farm in Mildura. In 1914 he became Knight of Justice and Registrar for the Awards of the Order of St. John in London. In 1915 he moved to the ambulance department and became its director. In 1919 he was appointed officer of the Legion of Honor ( Légion d'honneur ) by the French government for his services in World War I. After the division of Ireland he was appointed Privy Councilor of Northern Ireland on November 27, 1923 . In addition, he took over the office of Justice of the Peace for County Tyrone and at the same time remained connected to the Order of St. John until his death.

Nobility title

He inherited the following nobility titles on May 10, 1875:

Orders and decorations

literature

  • Gavin McLean: The Governors - New Zealand's Governors and Governors-General . Otago University Press, Dunedin 2006, ISBN 978-1-877372-25-4 (English).
  • Uchter John Mark . In: The Cyclopedia of New Zealand . Auckland Provincial District - Volume II. Cyclopedia Company Ltd, Christchurch 1902 (English, online [accessed June 9, 2010]).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Uchter John Mark . In: The Cyclopedia of New Zealand . 1902.
  2. ↑ a b Bernard John Foster: Ranfurly, sir Uchter John Mark Knox, Fifth Earl of, PC, GCMG ... ed .: Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. 2009, ISBN 978-0-478-18451-8 (English, online [accessed June 10, 2010]).
  3. ^ Introduction Ranfurly Papers. (PDF 148 kB) Public Record Office of Northern Island, 2007, accessed on June 10, 2010 (English).
  4. ↑ News . In: National Library of Australia (Ed.): The Brisbane Courier . Brisbane August 13, 1892, p.  4 (English, online [accessed June 10, 2010]).
  5. ^ A b c Gavin McLean: The Governors - New Zealand's Governors and Governors-General . Otago University Press, Dunedin 2006, pp. 154 (English).
  6. ↑ Uchter John Mark Knox, 5th Earl of Ranfurly on thepeerage.com , accessed August 18, 2015.
predecessor Office successor
William Onslow, 4th Earl of Onslow Governor of New Zealand
1897–1904 		William Plunket, 5th Baron Plunket
Thomas Knox Earl of Ranfurly
1875-1933 		Daniel Knox
personal data
SURNAME Knox, Uchter, 5th Earl of Ranfurly
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ranfurly, Uchter John Mark Knox, 5th Earl of (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Governor of New Zealand
DATE OF BIRTH August 14, 1856
PLACE OF BIRTH guernsey
DATE OF DEATH October 1, 1933
Place of death Dungannon , Ireland