This book contains biographical accounts of all 37 Governors of New South Wales from Arthur Phillip in 1788 to Marie Bashir.
Highlights of the book include John Hunter’s amazing sea voyages, the erratic career of the ‘devious and foul-tempered’ William Bligh, the highly public clashes of Sir Hercules Robinson (nicknamed the ‘Crisis maker’) with Governments and Parliament, the ‘Boy’s Own’ Naval career of the swashbuckling Sir Harry Rawson, the extraordinary double life of Lord Beauchamp and the dramatic events surrounding Sir Philip Game’s dismissal of Jack Lang.
Leading historians such as Brian Fletcher, JM Bennett, Geoffrey Bolton, Graham Freudenberg, Anne Twomey, Chris Cunneen, Ian Hancock, Evan Williams and Rodney Cavalier tell of both extraordinary lives and the political and constitutional crises many had to face.
Foreword – Rodney Cavalier
Introduction
David Clune and Ken Turner
Arthur Phillip (26 January 1788 – 10 December 1792)
Andrew Tink
John Hunter (11 September 1795 – 27 September 1800)
Andrew Tink
Philip Gidley King (28 September 1800 – 12 August 1806)
Andrew Tink
William Bligh (13 August 1806 – 1 January 1810)
Anne-Maree Whitaker
Lachlan Macquarie (1 January 1810 – 1 December 1821)
Brian Fletcher
Sir Thomas Brisbane (1 December 1821–1 December 1825)
Carol Liston
Ralph Darling (19 December 1825 – 22 October 1831)
Brian Fletcher
Sir Richard Bourke (3 December 1831 – 5 December 1837)
Frank Bongiorno
Sir George Gipps (24 February 1838 – 11 July 1846)
Alan Ventress
Sir Charles Augustus Fitzroy (1846 – 1855)
John Kennedy McLauglin
Sir William Thomas Denison (20 January 1855 – 22 January 1861)
J M Bennett
Sir John Young (16 May 1861 – 24 December 1867)
Gareth Griffith
Somerset Richard Lowry–Corry, Earl of Belmore (8 January 1868 – 21 February 1872)
Neil Graham
Sir Hercules George Robert Robinson (3 June 1872 – 19 March 1879)
Neil Graham
Sir Augustus William Frederick Spencer Loftus (1879 – 1885)
Geoffrey Bolton
Baron Carrington (Charles Robert Carrington) (1885 – 1890)
Geoffrey Bolton
Victor Albert George Child-Villiers, Earl of Jersey (15 January 1891 – 2 March 1893)
Geoffrey Bolton
Sir Robert William Duff (29 May 1893 – 15 March 1895)
Martha Rutledge
Henry Robert Brand Hampden, Viscount Hampden (21 November 1895 – 5 March 1899)
Gordon Lang
William Lygon Beauchamp, Earl Beauchamp (18 May 1899 – 30 April 1901)
Graham Freudenberg
Sir Harry Holdsworth Rawson (27 May 1902–27 May 1909)
Martha Rutledge
Frederic John Napier Thesiger Chelmsford, Baron Chelmsford (28 May 1909 – 11 Mar 1913)
David Clune
Sir Gerald Count della Catena Strickland (14 March 1913 – 27 October 1917)
Michael Hogan
Sir Walter Edward Davidson (18 February 1918 – 16 September 1923)
David Clune
Sir Dudley Rawson Stratford de Chair (28 February 1924 – 8 April 1930)
Anne Twomey
Sir Philip Woolcott Game (29 May 1930–15 January 1935)
Ann Twomey
Sir Alexander Gore Arkwright Hore-Ruthven (21 February 1935 – 22 January 1936)
Chris Cunneen
.Sir David Murray Anderson (6 August 1936 – 30 October 1936)
David Clune
John de Vere Loder, Baron Wakehurst (8 April 1937 – 8 January 1946)
Chris Cunneen
Sir John Northcott (1946 – 1957)
Chris Cunneen
Sir Eric Winslow Woodward (1 August 1957 – 31 July 1965)
Ken Turner
Sir Arthur Roden Cutler (1966 – 1981)
Ian Hancock
Sir James Anthony Rowland (20 January 1981 – 19 January 1989)
Evan Williams
Sir David Martin (20 January 1989 – 7 August 1990)
Ian Hancock
Peter Ross Sinclair (8 August 1990 – 1 March 1996)
Rodney Smith
Gordon Jacob Samuels (1 March 1996 – 28 February 2001)
Rodney Cavalier
Marie Bashir (2001 – )
Ken Turner and David Clune
Appendices
Table One: The Governors of New South Wales
Table Two: The Governors of NSW South Wales – Career
Index
…The volume is framed by Rod Cavalier’s foreword, which encourages a sequential reading of these thirty-seven essays, each part biographical study of a governor and part-analysis of the evolving office. Such a course, Cavalier suggests, will show the position to be no sinecure but a ‘constant’ in the flux of politics. Even so, as civics tests regularly show, it is a position in need of rehabilitation if it is to rise above being a misunderstood curiosity.
The twenty-three political, historical and legal specialists who contribute the essays endorse Cavalier’s point – even if some incumbents are found to fall short of esteem …
Australian Book Review, March 2010
The governor of a state is at the apex of its system of government, assenting laws, dissolving parliaments and commissioning ministers. Yet he or she is almost always required to act on the advice of the government of the day. This paradox is a product of the states’ origins as colonies under the British Crown and their subsequent moves to responsible government.
That progression is, in many ways, the theme of this book, which contains biographies of the 37 governors of NSW since 1788, with particular emphasis on their period as the vice-regal representative.
… like all books from Federation Press, this one is produced with superior paper and beautiful binding so that is a pleasure to hold while reading.
Michael Sexton, Spectrum, Sydney Morning Herald, March 27-28, 2010
