Charles Wallace Alexander Napier Cochrane-Baillie, 2nd Baron Lamington, (29 July 1860 – 16 September 1940), was a British politician and colonial administrator who served as

Governor of Queensland The governor of Queensland is the representative in the state of Queensland of the monarch of Australia. In an analogous way to the governor-general of Australia at the national level, the governor performs constitutional and ceremonial func ...

from 1896 to 1901, and Governor of Bombay from 1903 to 1907.

Early life

Born in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, England, he was the only son of

Alexander Baillie-Cochrane, 1st Baron Lamington Alexander Dundas Ross Cochrane-Wishart-Baillie, 1st Baron Lamington (24 November 1816 – 15 February 1890), better known as Alexander Baillie-Cochrane, was a British Conservative politician perhaps best known for his association with Young Englan ...

. Charles was educated at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, ...

and Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

in 1883. In 1885, he became assistant private secretary to the

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern ...

Lord Salisbury Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (; 3 February 183022 August 1903) was a British statesman and Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom three times for a total of over thirteen y ...

.R. B. Joyce
'Lamington, second Baron (1860–1940)'
'' Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Volume 9, Melbourne University Press, 1983, pp. 653–654.

Political career

Cochrane-Baillie was narrowly defeated in the 1885 election for the borough constituency of St Pancras North, but he won the subsequent election in July 1886, taking his seat in the British House of Commons for the Conservative Party. Upon the death of his father in 1890, he succeeded as the 2nd

Baron Lamington Baron Lamington, of Lamington in the County of Lanark, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1880 for Alexander Baillie-Cochrane, a long-standing Conservative Member of Parliament and old friend of Benjamin Disrael ...

. On 13 June 1895, he married Mary Houghton Hozier at St Michael's Church, Pimlico; they had two children, a son and a daughter. In 1890, the British government sent Lord Lamington to travel between

Tonkin Tonkin, also spelled ''Tongkin'', ''Tonquin'' or ''Tongking'', is an exonym referring to the northern region of Vietnam. During the 17th and 18th centuries, this term referred to the domain '' Đàng Ngoài'' under Trịnh lords' control, includ ...

in Vietnam and

Siam Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

, with a view to annexing at least the

Xishuangbanna Xishuangbanna, Sibsongbanna or Sipsong Panna ( Tham: , New Tai Lü script: ; ; th, สิบสองปันนา; lo, ສິບສອງພັນນາ; shn, သိပ်းသွင်ပၼ်းၼႃး; my, စစ်ဆောင်� ...

district and possibly the whole

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the C ...

province of China in an attempt to limit French colonisation of the area.

Governorships

Cochrane-Baillie was in the

Royal Company of Archers The Royal Company of Archers, The King's Bodyguard for Scotland is a ceremonial unit that serves as the Sovereign's bodyguard in Scotland—a role it has performed since 1822 during the reign of King George IV when the company provided a per ...

, as King's body guard for Scotland. In October 1895, Lord Lamington was selected to replace Sir Henry Norman as

. His tenure as Governor was from 9 April 1896 to 19 December 1901. He was a very politically

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

governor, and expressed a concern that the Federation of Australia which took place during his tenure would lead to unrestrained

socialism Socialism is a left-wing Economic ideology, economic philosophy and Political movement, movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to Private prop ...

. He also worked with the first

Premier of Queensland The premier of Queensland is the head of government in the Australian state of Queensland. By convention the premier is the leader of the party with a parliamentary majority in the unicameral Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The premier is ap ...

Sir Samuel Griffith Sir Samuel Walker Griffith, (21 June 1845 – 9 August 1920) was an Australian judge and politician who served as the inaugural Chief Justice of Australia, in office from 1903 to 1919. He also served a term as Chief Justice of Queensland and t ...

, to ensure that the role of state governors was not diminished after Federation. Apart from six months leave in England when he was appointed a

Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George III. It is named in honour ...

, Lord Lamington served as governor for five years until 19 December 1901. In 1903 he was made a

Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria on 1 January 1878. The Order includes members of three classes: #Knight Grand Commander (GCIE) #Knight Commander ( KCIE) #Companion ( CIE) No appoi ...

, and appointed as Governor of Bombay (until his resignation in July 1907),"Obituary", ''The Times'' (London), 18 September 1940, p. 7. where the royal prerogative he exercised was far more powerful than it had been in Australia. He is also noted as being sympathetic, after having met ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, to the

Baháʼí Faith The Baháʼí Faith is a religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the essential worth of all religions and the unity of all people. Established by Baháʼu'lláh in the 19th century, it initially developed in Iran and parts of the ...

Later life

Lord Lamington was appointed captain of the

Lanarkshire Yeomanry The Lanarkshire Yeomanry was a yeomanry regiment of the British Army, first raised in 1819, which served as a dismounted infantry regiment in the First World War and provided two field artillery regiments in the Second World War, before being am ...

on 26 March 1902. In Spring 1919, he served as Commissioner of the British Relief Unit in Syria, prior to its allocation as a

French mandate The Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon (french: Mandat pour la Syrie et le Liban; ar, الانتداب الفرنسي على سوريا ولبنان, al-intidāb al-fransi 'ala suriya wa-lubnān) (1923−1946) was a League of Nations mandate fou ...

. On 13 March 1940, he was one of four victims of a shooting at the Caxton Hall in London by Indian nationalist

Udham Singh Udham Singh (born Sher Singh; 26 December 1899 — 31 July 1940) was an Indian revolutionary belonging to Ghadar Party and HSRA, best known for assassinating Michael O'Dwyer, the former lieutenant governor of the Punjab in India, on 13 M ...

. Former lieutenant-governor of India,

Michael O'Dwyer Michael Francis O'Dwyer (28 April 1864 – 13 March 1940) was an Irish Indian Civil Service (ICS) officer and later the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab, British India, between 1913 and 1919. During O'Dwyer's tenure as Punjab's Lieutenant Gove ...

was killed instantly. O'Dwyer's predecessor in the role,

Louis Dane Sir Louis William Dane (21 March 1856 – 22 February 1946) was an administrator during the time of the British Raj. Early life He was born on 21 March 1856 at Chichester, Sussex, the fifth son of Richard Martin Dane, an army staff surgeon, an ...

, suffered a broken arm. Cochrane-Baillie and Lawrence Dundas, the former secretary of state for India, were slightly injured. He died at his family home, Lamington House, in

Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark ( gd, Siorrachd Lannraig; sco, Lanrikshire), is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the central Lowlands of Scotland. Lanarkshire is the most populous county in Scotl ...

, Scotland, on 16 September 1940, aged 80.

Other roles and ranks (undated)

* President of the East India Association * President of the National Indian Association * President of the Middle East Association * President of the Indigent Moslems Burial Fund * President of the British Red Crescent Society * President of 'other organisations concerned with Eastern welfare and culture' * President of the Persia Society (forerunner of the Iran Society) (--1912--) * Vice President of the Royal Central Asian Society * Vice-President of the Royal Geographical Society of London * Chairman of the Committee of the Royal Normal College and Academy of Music for the Blind (--1913--) Post Office London, 1914, vol. 4 (Trades and Professional Directory), p. 1900 (pdf p. 528). * A Vice-President of the Trinity College of Music, London (--1913--) * Lieutenant-Colonel of the 6th Battalion, The Scottish Rifles (Cameronians) * Captain of the Royal Company of Archers (King's Bodyguard for Scotland) * Lieutenant-Colonel of the Lanarkshire Yeomanry

Personal life

Lord Lamington married Mary Houghton Hozier, the youngest daughter of

William Hozier, 1st Baron Newlands William Wallace Hozier, 1st Baron Newlands (24 February 1825 – 30 January 1906), known as Sir William Hozier, Bt, between 1890 and 1898, was a Scottish soldier and businessman. Background Hozier was the son of James Hozier, of Mauldslie Castl ...

, on 13 June 1895. They had two children, a son Victor Alexander Brisbane William Cochrane-Baillie (1896–1951, godson of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

and in 1940 became the 3rd Baron Lamington) and a daughter Grisell Annabella Gem Cochrane-Baillie (1898–1985). Lady Lamington's diary, her 'little pamphlet of memories', held by the State Library of Queensland, paints a detailed portrait of their life as public figures in the colonies.

Legacy

Lord Lamington is best known in Australia for allegedly giving his name to the lamington, a popular Australian cake consisting of a cube of

sponge cake Sponge cake is a light cake made with egg whites, flour and sugar, sometimes leavened with baking powder. Some sponge cakes do not contain egg yolks, like angel food cake, but most of them do. Sponge cakes, leavened with beaten eggs, originated ...

dipped in chocolate icing and sprinkled with desiccated coconut. The stories of the creation of the lamington vary widely, although in most versions Lamington's chef Armand Galland at Queensland's Government House devises the cake either by accident or due to a shortage of ingredients. Lamington is also reported to have referred to the cakes as "those bloody poofy woolly biscuits". The Lamington Plateau and National Park in Queensland, Lamington Bridge in Maryborough, Queensland,

Mount Lamington Mount Lamington is an andesitic stratovolcano in the Oro Province of Papua New Guinea. The forested peak of the volcano had not been recognised as such until its devastating eruption in 1951 that caused about 3,000 deaths. The volcano rises to 1 ...

(a volcano in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

), and Lamington Road in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

Lamington High School in Hubli were also named after him. The Lady Lamington Hospital for Women and Lady Lamington Nurses Home are now part of Royal Brisbane Hospital Nurses' Homes.

References

Note and source

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lamington, Charles Cochrane-Baillie, 2nd Baron 1860 births 1940 deaths Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1886–1892 UK MPs who inherited peerages Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Conservative Party (UK) hereditary peers Governors of Queensland Governors of Bombay Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Knights Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire Deputy Lieutenants of Glasgow Lanarkshire Yeomanry officers Members of the Bombay Legislative Council Charles Fellows of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society Eldest sons of British hereditary barons British colonial governors and administrators in Oceania