William Onslow, 4th Earl of Onslow

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William Hillier Onslow, 4th Earl of Onslow

William Hillier Onslow, 4th Earl of Onslow GCMG (born March 7, 1853 in Old Alresford , Hampshire , England , † October 23, 1911 in Hendon , Middlesex , England), was a British politician and Governor of New Zealand from 1889 to 1892 .

Life

William Hillier Onslow was the only son of George Augustus Cranley Onslow and his wife Mary Harriet Anne Loftus . He attended Eton College and later briefly Exeter College at the University of Oxford . With the death of his great-uncle Arthur Onslow, 3rd Earl of Onslow in October 1870, he inherited the title of Earl of Onslow and the family seat of Clandon Park in the county of Surrey . On February 3, 1875, he married Florence Coulston Gardner , eldest daughter of Alan Legge Gardner, 3rd Baron Gardner . They had two daughters and two sons. Onslow followed the family tradition of becoming a politician and Secretary of State in the parliamentary system. Due to his poor health, Onslow retired in 1911 at the age of 58 and died that same year on October 23.

Political career

William Onslow began his political career in 1875 as High Steward of Guildford , was lord-in-waiting for the British Conservatives in 1880 and 1886-87, was from 1887 to 1888 for the United States Under Secretary of State for the Colonies ( Secretary of State for the Colonies ), a position that he would later take on again between 1900 and 1903. In 1888 he was Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade ( Parliamentary Secretary for Trade ), and only later came a year of appointment as Governor of New Zealand .

Governor of New Zealand

It was probably more the money that attracted Onslow to hold a governorship. With his 5,260  hectares of land and around £ 11,000  a year income, he was clearly not making enough. Queensland was under discussion, but on November 24, 1888 it was publicly announced that he would succeed William Jervois as governor of New Zealand.

Onslow was the first New Zealand governor since Robert FitzRoy (term: 1843–1845) to have no experience in the office, and at 35 he was also the youngest governor since George Edward Gray (first term: 1846–1853) . On May 2, 1889, he took office in Wellington , but avoided the capital a few months later after an outbreak of typhus . His absence was carried out after him. This was forgotten on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi . In this anniversary year his second son was born and in order to show his solidarity with the colony , he gave his son Victor Alexander Herber a fourth name after consultation with the Māori , which was borrowed from the name of a native bird. Huia embodied nobility and was proposed by the Iwi of the Ngāti Huia , who lived north of Wellington on the Kapiti Coast .

In October 1891 Onslow announced that he would return to England. Alleged personal difficulties in England forced him to take this step. He left New Zealand on February 24, 1892.

Back in England

Back in England, he re-entered parliamentary service and became Under Secretary of State for India in 1895 . He remained in this position until 1900. At the same time, from 1895 to 1899, he was elected to Alderman ( City Councilor ) of the London County Council and in 1900 to Alderman of the City of Westminster . In 1903 he was appointed Privy Councilor and in the same year he took over the presidency of the Board of Agriculture , which he chaired until 1905. In 1905 he was elected Chairman of the Committee of the House of Lords , an office which he held until his death in 1911. In 1895 Onslow was elected Provincial Grand Master of Freemasons of Surrey , the Onslow Lodge , to which he had given permission in April 1893 to use his family name as the name for the Masonic Lodge , and held this office until 1900 or 1911 (depending on the sources ).

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).

Web links

Commons : William Onslow, 4th Earl of Onslow  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Onslow, Earl of (UK, 1801) . Cracroft's Peerage , archived from the original on June 19, 2013 ; accessed on January 22, 2016 (English, original website no longer available).
  2. ^ McLean : The Governors - New Zealand's Governors and Governors-General . 2006, p.  136 (English).
  3. ^ Galbreath : Onslow, William Hillier 1853-1911 . Retrieved June 7, 2010 (English, section 5).
  4. ^ Galbreath : Onslow, William Hillier 1853-1911 . Retrieved June 7, 2010 (last section).
predecessor Office successor
William Jervois Governor of New Zealand
1889-1892 		David Boyle, 7th Earl of Glasgow
Arthur Onslow Earl of Onslow
1870-1911 		Richard Onslow
personal data
SURNAME Onslow, William, 4th Earl of Onslow
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Onslow, William Hillier Onslow 4th Earl of (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician and Governor of New Zealand
DATE OF BIRTH March 7, 1853
PLACE OF BIRTH Old Alresford
DATE OF DEATH October 23, 1911
Place of death Hendon