John Baird, 1st Viscount Stonehaven
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The Rt Hon The Viscount Stonehaven, GCMG, DSO, PC, JP, DL |
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In office 8 October 1925 – 21 January 1931 |
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Preceded by | The Lord Forster |
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Succeeded by | Sir Isaac Isaacs |
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Born | 27 April 1874 London, United Kingdom |
Died | 20 August 1941 Scotland |
John Lawrence Baird, 1st Viscount Stonehaven, GCMG, DSO, PC, JP, DL (27 April 1874 – 20 August 1941), was a British Conservative politician, who served as a Member of Parliament, government minister, and was later the eighth Governor-General of Australia.
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[edit] Early life
Baird born in London, the son of Sir Alexander Baird, Bt, a wealthy baronet. He was educated at Eton and Oxford, but left university without graduating. In 1894 he served as an aide-de-camp to the Governor of New South Wales, then entered the diplomatic service. In 1905 he married Ethel Sydney Keith-Falconer, daughter of the 10th Earl of Kintore, who later became 11th Countess of Kintore.
[edit] Parliament
Baird was elected to the House of Commons for Rugby in 1912, as a Conservative. He was Minister for Transport in the governments of Andrew Bonar Law and Stanley Baldwin from 1922 until January 1924, when Ramsay MacDonald's Labour government took office. In December, after the Conservatives returned to power, he accepted the position of Governor-General of Australia, and was created Baron Stonehaven (Stonehaven, The Mearns, Scotland).
[edit] Australia
In accordance with now accepted practice, the Australian Prime Minister, Stanley Bruce, had been offered a number of choices, including a Duke, a Marquess and an Earl, but chose John Baird. Bruce opted for Baird partly because of his political experience and partly because he was a more modest figure than the aristocratic alternatives.
Baird (now Baron Stonehaven) arrived in Australia in October 1925. He quickly established good relations with Bruce, with whom he had much in common. But like his predecessor, he found that Australian Prime Ministers no longer wanted a Governor-General acting as an Imperial overseer, or as a representative of the British government, but merely as discreet figureheads. The 1926 Imperial conference in London recognised the de facto independence of the Dominions, and ended the role of the Governors-General as diplomats and as channels of communication between governments. From now on the Governor-General's sole role was to be a personal representative of the Crown.
There were other changes during Stonehaven's term. In May 1927 he formally opened the first meeting of the Australian Parliament in the newly built Parliament House in Canberra, and at last was given a permanent residence, Government House, Canberra, commonly known by the previous name of the house, Yarralumla. This meant an end to travelling between government houses in Sydney and Melbourne and made the post of Governor-General less expensive. At the same time, the advent of aviation, of which Stonehaven was a keen exponent, made travelling around Australia much easier.
For most of Stonehaven's term Bruce seemed firmly entrenched in office, but in September 1929 he was unexpectedly defeated on the floor of the House of Representatives, and asked Stonehaven for a dissolution. Although the Parliament was only a year old, Stonehaven agreed at once: the days when Governors-General exercised a discretion in this area had passed.
Bruce's party was defeated at the October election, and Bruce also lost his own seat (the only time a sitting Australian Prime Minister to have suffered this fate). The Labor leader, James Scullin, took office. Stonehaven's relations with Scullin were correct but not friendly, since his political sympathies lay elsewhere. It was probably fortunate for him that his term expired in 1930, before the crises of the Scullin government began. Stonehaven was not consulted by Scullin about the choice of his successor, and he left Australia in October 1930. On his return to Britain he was appointed Chairman of the Conservative Party, and elevated to the title Viscount Stonehaven. He died in Scotland in 1941.
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Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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Preceded by Corrie Brighton Grant |
Member of Parliament for Rugby 1910?? – 1922 |
Succeeded by Euan Wallace |
Preceded by George Younger |
Member of Parliament for Ayr Burghs 1922–1925 |
Succeeded by Sir Thomas Cecil Russell Moore |
Political offices | ||
Preceded by The Earl of Crawford |
First Commissioner of Works 1921–1922 |
Succeeded by Frederick William Jowett |
Preceded by The Earl of Crawford |
Minister of Transport 1922–1924 |
Succeeded by Harry Gosling |
Government offices | ||
Preceded by The Lord Forster |
Governor-General of Australia 1925–1931 |
Succeeded by Sir Isaac Isaacs |
Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
New Title | Viscount Stonehaven 1938–1941 |
Succeeded by James Keith |
Baronetage of the United Kingdom | ||
Preceded by Alexander Baird |
Baronet (of Stonehaven) 1920–1941 |
Succeeded by James Keith |
Governors-General of Australia | |
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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 |
Categories: 1874 births | 1941 deaths | Governors-General of Australia | Members of the United Kingdom Parliament from English constituencies | Viscounts in the Peerage of the United Kingdom | Conservative MPs (UK) | Members of the United Kingdom Parliament from Scottish constituencies | Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom | Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George | Companions of the Distinguished Service Order | Deputy Lieutenants | Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom | Old Etonians | UK MPs 1910 | UK MPs 1910-1918 | UK MPs 1918-1922 | UK MPs 1922-1923 | UK MPs 1923-1924 | UK MPs 1924-1929