The Viscount Stonehaven | |
|---|---|
 Baird in 1931 | |
| 8th Governor-General of Australia | |
| In office 8 October 1925 – 2 October 1930 | |
| Monarch | George V |
| Prime Minister | |
| Preceded by | The Lord Forster |
| Succeeded by | Sir Isaac Isaacs |
| Minister of Transport | |
| In office 31 October 1922 – 22 January 1924 | |
| Monarch | George V |
| Prime Minister | |
| Preceded by | The Earl of Crawford |
| Succeeded by | Harry Gosling |
| First Commissioner of Works | |
| In office 31 October 1922 – 22 January 1924 | |
| Monarch | George V |
| Prime Minister | |
| Preceded by | The Earl of Crawford |
| Succeeded by | Fred Jowett |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1874-04-27)27 April 1874 Chelsea, London, England |
| Died | 20 August 1941(1941-08-20) (aged 67) |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse(s) | Sydney Keith-Falconer, 11th Countess of Kintore (1874–1974) |
| Alma mater | Christ Church, Oxford |
John Lawrence Baird, 1st Viscount Stonehaven (27 April 1874 – 20 August 1941) was a British politician who served as the eighthgovernor-general of Australia, in office from 1925 to 1930. He had previously been a government minister underDavid Lloyd George,Bonar Law, andStanley Baldwin.
Baird was born in London, and attendedEton College andChrist Church, Oxford. His father wasSir Alexander Baird, a Scottish-born civil servant who spent much of his life in Egypt. Baird was a member of theDiplomatic Service before winning election to theHouse of Commons in 1910, representing theConservative Party. When war broke out a few years later, he joined theIntelligence Corps and won theDistinguished Service Order (DSO). Baird was added to theLloyd George ministry in 1916, and held various junior portfolios until 1922 when he was appointedMinister of Transport andFirst Commissioner of Works.
In 1925, Baird was appointed Governor-General of Australia on the advice ofStanley Bruce. He was raised to thepeerage asBaron Stonehaven, having previously succeeded to his father'sbaronetcy in 1920. Lord Stonehaven was the first governor-general to live inCanberra, moving intoYarralumla in 1927 and presiding over the first sitting at the newParliament House. After returning to Britain, Stonehaven served asChairman of the Conservative Party from 1931 to 1936. He was raised to theviscountcy in 1938, and retired to his ancestral seat inKincardineshire.
Baird was born inChelsea, London,[1][2] son ofSir Alexander Baird, 1st Baronet, and wife The Hon. Annette Maria, daughter ofLawrence Palk, 1st Baron Haldon.[3]
He was educated atEton andChrist Church, Oxford, but left university without graduating. He was commissioned in theLanarkshire Yeomanry (later theScottish Horse). In 1894 he served as anaide-de-camp to theGovernor of New South Wales, then entered the diplomatic service.[1] He was appointed Second Secretary in September 1902,[4] and became a Companion of theOrder of St Michael and St George in 1904, before he retired from the Diplomatic Service in 1908.[3]
He was aDeputy Lieutenant forKincardineshire from 5 January 1900.[5]
Baird was elected to theHouse of Commons forRugby in theJanuary 1910 general election[3][6][7] as aConservative, and was private secretary to the Leader of the Conservative Party,Bonar Law, between 1911 and 1916. He also fought in the First World War where he wasmentioned in despatches and awarded theDistinguished Service Order. He enteredDavid Lloyd George'scoalition government asParliamentary Secretary to the Air Board in December 1916, an office that was renamed Parliamentary Secretary to the Air Council in November 1917. In January 1919 he becameJoint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Munitions. Already in April 1919, he was madeUnder-Secretary of State for the Home Department, which he remained until the coalition government fell in October 1922.[3]
Bonar Law became Prime Minister the same month, and appointed BairdMinister of Transport[8] andFirst Commissioner of Works.[9] He was sworn of thePrivy Council a few days later.[8] In theNovember 1922 general election, he was returned forAyr Burghs.[3][10][11] He continued as First Commissioner of Works and Minister of Transport also whenStanley Baldwin became Prime Minister in May 1923 and held them until January 1924, whenRamsay MacDonald'sLabour government took office.[3]
In December, after the Conservatives returned to power, he accepted the position ofGovernor-General of Australia offered to him byAustralian Prime MinisterStanley Bruce, who opted for Baird partly because of his political experience and partly because he was a more modest figure than the aristocratic alternatives. In June 1925, he was raised to the peerage asBaron Stonehaven, of Ury in the County of Kincardine,[12] and appointed aKnight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG).[1][2]
Lord 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. The1926 Imperial Conference in London recognised thede facto independence of theDominions, 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 theAustralian Parliament in the newly builtParliament House inCanberra, and the Governor-General was at last 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.[2]
For most of Stonehaven's term, Bruce seemed firmly entrenched in office but, in September 1929, he was unexpectedly defeated on the floor of theHouse 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.[2]
Bruce's party was defeated at the October election, and Bruce also lost his own seat. TheLabor leader,James Scullin, took office in January 1930. 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 before the crises of the Scullin government began.[1][2] Stonehaven left Australia on 2 October 1930, at which point his successor had not been determined;Lord Somers, theGovernor of Victoria, took over asAdministrator of the Commonwealth until a permanent successor,Sir Isaac Isaacs, took office in January 1931.[13]
Stonehaven was a freemason. During his term as Governor-General (1925–1930), he was alsoGrand Master of theGrand Lodge of New South Wales.[14]
On his return to Britain, he was appointed Chairman of theConservative Party in 1931, a post he held until 1936.[3] In 1938, he was further honoured when he was madeViscount Stonehaven, of Ury in theCounty of Kincardine.[15]
Stonehaven married Lady Ethel Sydney Keith-Falconer, daughter of the9th Earl of Kintore, in 1905. The couple had two sons and three daughters. Lord Stonehaven died of hypertensive cardiac disease atUry House,Stonehaven, Scotland, in August 1941, aged 67, and was succeeded by his eldest son,Ian. The Viscountess Stonehaven succeeded her elder brother as eleventhCountess of Kintore in 1966. She died in September 1974, one day after her 100th birthday.[3]
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This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forRugby 1910 –1922 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forAyr Burghs 1922–1925 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| New office | Parliamentary Secretary to the Air Board (renamedParliamentary Secretary to the Air Council 1917) 1916–1919 | Office abolished |
| Preceded by | Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Munitions 1919 With:F. G. Kellaway | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department 1919–1922 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | First Commissioner of Works 1922–1924 | Succeeded by |
| Minister of Transport 1922–1924 | Succeeded by | |
| Government offices | ||
| Preceded by | Governor-General of Australia 1925–1930 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chairman of the Conservative Party 1931–1936 | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Viscount Stonehaven 1938–1941 | Succeeded by |
| Baron Stonehaven 1925–1941 | ||
| Baronetage of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by | Baronet (of Urie) 1920–1941 | Succeeded by |
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