Henry Northcote, 1st Baron Northcote

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The Rt Hon. The Lord Northcote, GCMG, GCIE, CB, PC
3rd Governor General of Australia
In office 21 January 1904 – 9 September 1908
Preceded by	The Lord Tennyson
Succeeded by	The Earl of Dudley
Born	18 November 1846 London, United Kingdom
Died	29 September 1911

Henry Stafford Northcote, 1st Baron Northcote GCMG GCIE CB PC (18 November 1846 – 29 September 1911), third Governor-General of Australia, was born in London, the second son of the prominent Conservative politician Sir Stafford Northcote, later 1st Earl of Iddesleigh. He was educated at Eton and Oxford University and had joined the Foreign Office as a diplomat.

In 1880 Northcote was elected to the House of Commons as MP for Exeter, where he served until 1899, holding junior office in the Conservative government of Lord Salisbury. In that year he was appointed Governor of Bombay. Since as a second son he had not inherited his father's title, he was given his own peerage, and was thereafter known as Lord Northcote. He was still in this post when the Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain, offered him the post of Governor-General of Australia.

The first two Governors-General, Lord Hopetoun and Lord Tennyson, had served shortened terms and had had difficult relations with Australian ministers. Both the British and Australian governments wanted stability and continuity, and Northcote was appointed for a five-year term. His life-long experience in politics and his time in Bombay made him a suitable appointment. He was neither as imperious as Hopetoun nor as stuffy as Tennyson, and he made a good impression with both politicians and the public.

This was just as well, because Northcote was the first Australian Governor-General to have to deal with political instability. In April 1904 the Prime Minister, Alfred Deakin, resigned, and was succeeded in quick succession by the Labor leader Chris Watson, the Free Trade leader George Reid and then Deakin again. Both Watson and Reid asked Northcote to dissolve Parliament before their resignations, and in both cases he refused. At this time no-one doubted that the Governor-General had a discretion in these cases. It is a measure of Northcote's standing that all these leaders respected his decisions.

Like his predecessors, Northcote saw himself as a diplomatic representative of the British government as well a vice-regal representative. He was actively involved in negotiations between the British and Australian governments over contentious trade and shipping issues, although his role diminished after 1906 when the Liberal Party came to power in Britain, cutting off much of his influence in London.

In 1907 Northcote and Deakin had a falling out when the Governor-General, on instructions from London, declined to give his assent to a bill restricting appeals from the Australian courts to the Privy Council in London. Deakin, although a loyal Imperialist, believed that Australian parliaments should be sovereign in Australia, and bluntly told Northcote so. This prompted Northcote to announce in February 1908 that he wished to resign, a year early. He left Australia in September. In Britain his health declined and he died childless in 1911, his barony becoming extinct with his death.

[edit] Reference

• Serle, Percival (1949). “Northcote, Henry Stafford”, Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by: Arthur Mills John George Johnson	Member for Exeter with Edward Johnson 1880–1885 1880–1899	Succeeded by: Edgar Vincent
Political offices
Preceded by: Sir Arthur Divett Hayter, Bt	Financial Secretary to the War Office 1885–1886	Succeeded by: Herbert Gladstone
Government Offices
Preceded by: The Viscount Sandhurst	Governor of Bombay 1900–1903	Succeeded by: The Lord Lamington
Preceded by: The Lord Tennyson	Governor-General of Australia 1904–1908	Succeeded by: The Earl of Dudley
Military Offices
Preceded by: William Woodall	Surveyor-General of the Ordnance 1886–1887	Succeeded by: Post abolished
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by: New Creation	Baron Northcote 1899–1911	Succeeded by: Extinct

Governors-General of Australia
Hopetoun | Tennyson | Northcote | Dudley | Denman | Munro-Ferguson | Forster | Stonehaven | Isaacs | Gowrie | Gloucester | McKell | Slim | Dunrossil | De L'Isle | Casey | Hasluck | Kerr | Cowen | Stephen | Hayden | Deane | Hollingworth | Jeffery