 |
William Humble Ward
b. 25 May 1867, London, England
d. 29 Jun 1932, London, England |
| Title: |
Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief of the Commonwealth of Australia |
| Term: |
9 Sep 1908 - 31 Jul 1911 |
| Chronology: |
18 Apr 1908, appointed by Commission under the Royal Sign Manual and Signet [1] |
| |
9 Sep 1908, took an oath of allegiance and an oath of office as Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief of the Commonwealth of Australia, public ceremony, a pavilion in the Domain, Sydney [2][3] |
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31 Jul 1911, appointment superseded by the Commission of a successor effective on taking the prescribed oaths (9 Sep 1908) [4][5] |
| Names/titles: |
Nobility title (by courtesy): Lord Ednam; nobility titles (succession): Earl of Dudley, Viscount Ednam, of Ednam in the County of Roxburgh, Baron Ward, of Birmingham in the County of Warwick (from 7 May 1885) |
| Biography: |
| Eldest of the seven children of William Ward, first Earl of Dudley, and his second wife, Georgiana Elizabeth Moncreiffe, who was a favourite of the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII; he was educated at Eton College (1881-1884); while at school he broke his leg and as a result he was lame for life; succeeded to his father's titles in 1885, inheriting, at the age of seventeen, some 25,000 acres, mainly in Worcestershire, including ironworks and collieries; cruised around the world in his steam yacht, Marchesa (1885-1887); was known as a winning yachtsman and a fine golfer; turned to politics as a Conservative, being elected to the London county council to represent Finsbury (Holborn) in 1895, and mayor of Dudley in 1895 and 1896; in the cabinet of Lord Salisbury (1895-1902) he was parliamentary secretary to the Board of Trade; during the South African War he served as major in the Worcestershire yeomanry and in 1900 saw action in the Orange Free State and the Transvaal; served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1902-1905); sworn in as a member of the UK Privy Council (11 Aug 1902); left office on the defeat of the Balfour ministry and was succeeded by the Earl of Aberdeen (1905); partly at the urging of King Edward VII, he was selected to serve as the fourth Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia (1908-1911); his term in Australia was not successful, either publicly or privately; a political crisis in 1909 led to his refusing the request of the Labour prime minister, Andrew Fisher, for a dissolution of parliament and Alfred Deakin formed a government; relations with the second Fisher administration, which took office in 1910, were strained; during World War I, he commanded the Worcestershire hussars in Egypt and at Gallipoli in 1915 and was promoted lieutenant-colonel; was attached to the headquarters staff of the 40th division (1916).
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| Biographical sources: "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography" (Oxford University Press, 2004); The Times, No. 46,173, 30 Jun 1932, pp. 14, 16 (obituary). |
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| [1] |
Government Gazette, No. 45, 9 Sep 1908, p. 1270. |
| [2] |
Government Gazette, No. 45, 9 Sep 1908, p. 1269. |
| [3] |
Sydney Morning Herald, No. 22,044, 10 Sep 1908, pp. 7-8. |
| [4] |
Government Gazette, No. 59, 31 Jul 1911, p. 1739. |
| [5] |
Earl of Dudley did not attend the ceremony of swearing-in of his successor, Baron Denman (31 Jul 1911), being absent from Melbourne. He returned to Melbourne 7 Aug 1911 and sailed for Adelaide 9 Aug 1911 by RMS Orvieto. After a one-day staying in Adelaide on 11 Aug 1911, he departed for London by the same ship. |
