Frederic Thesiger, 1st Viscount Chelmsford
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Frederic John Napier Thesiger, 1st Viscount Chelmsford, GCMG, GCSI, GCIE, GBE (12 August 1868 - 1 April 1933) was a British statesman who served as Viceroy of India from 1916 to 1921.
Thesiger was the son of the 2nd Baron Chelmsford. Educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, Thesiger was elected to a Fellowship at All Souls College. He served on the London County Council. Succeeding his father in 1905 to become 3rd Baron, Chelmsford was appointed Governor of Queensland (1905 to 1909), and then became Governor of New South Wales (1909 to 1913). He left Australia that year to command a regiment in India. Rising quickly, he became Viceroy in 1916, succeeding Lord Hardinge.
His viceregency was a time of unrest in India, seeing the implementation of the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms (named for the Viceroy and Edwin Samuel Montagu, the Secretary of State for India), which gave greater authority to local Indian representative bodies, but also violent resistance, culminating in the implementation of martial law and the Amritsar Massacre of 1919. This led the Indian National Congress to boycott the first regional elections in 1920, and Chelmsford returned home under a cloud, generally accused of incompetence, which did not prevent him from being raised to the dignity of Viscount.
In 1924, despite being a life-long Conservative, Chelmsford was persuaded to join the Labour government of Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 as First Lord of the Admiralty, though this was a technical post and he never joined the Party. After the fall of the government he retired from political life, devoting his later years to work on the Miners' Welfare Committee and to educational projects.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Sir Herbert Chermside |
Governor of Queensland 1905–1909 |
Succeeded by Sir William MacGregor |
| Preceded by Sir Harry Rawson |
Governor of New South Wales 1909–1913 |
Succeeded by Sir Gerald Strickland |
| Preceded by The Lord Hardinge of Penshurst |
Viceroy of India 1916–1921 |
Succeeded by The Earl of Reading |
| Preceded by Leopold Stennett Amery |
First Lord of the Admiralty 1924 |
Succeeded by William Clive Bridgeman |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by New Creation |
Viscount Chelmsford 1921–1933 |
Succeeded by Andrew Thesiger |
| Preceded by Frederic Thesiger |
Baron Chelmsford 1905–1933 |
|
[edit] References
Categories: Viceroys of India | Governors of New South Wales | Governors of Queensland | Members of the London County Council | Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford | Knights Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India | Knights Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire | Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George | Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire | Lords of the Admiralty | Viscounts in the Peerage of the United Kingdom | 1868 births | 1933 deaths
