Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon

Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon (12 September 1866 – 12 August 1941), was a British Liberal politician and administrator who served as Governor General of Canada, the 13th since Canadian Confederation, and as Viceroy and Governor-General of India, the country's 22nd.

Freeman-Thomas was born in England and educated at Eton College and then the University of Cambridge before serving for 15 years in the Sussex Artillery. He then entered the diplomatic and political fields, acting as aide-de-camp to his father-in-law when the latter was Governor of Victoria and, in 1900, was elected to the British House of Commons. He thereafter occupied a variety of government posts, including secretary to the British prime minister and, after being raised to the peerage as Lord Willingdon, as Lord-in-waiting to King George V. From 1913, Willingdon held gubernatorial and viceregal offices throughout the British Empire, starting with the governorship of Bombay and then the governorship of Madras, before he was in 1926 appointed as the Governor-General of Canada to replace the Viscount Byng of Vimy, occupying the post until succeeded by the Earl of Bessborough in 1931. Willingdon was immediately thereafter appointed as Viceroy and Governor-General of India to replace Lord Irwin (later created Earl of Halifax), and he served in the post until succeeded by the Marquess of Linlithgow in 1936.

After the end of his viceregal tenure, Willingdon was installed as the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and was elevated in the peerage as the Marquess of Willingdon. After representing Britain at a number of organisations and celebrations, Willingdon died in 1941 at his home in London, and his ashes were interred in Westminster Abbey.

Early life and education

Freeman Thomas was born the only son of Freeman Frederick Thomas, an officer in the rifle brigade of Ratton and Yapton, and his wife, Mabel, daughter of Henry Brand, Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (later Speaker of the House of Commons, who retired as 1st Viscount Hampden). Before he was two, Thomas' father had died and he was raised thereafter by his mother, who sent him to Eton College. There, he acted as President of the Eton Society and was for three years a member of the school's cricket team, serving as captain of the playing eleven during his final year. He carried this enthusiasm for sport on to the University of Cambridge, where he was accepted to Trinity College after leaving Eton, and was drafted into the Cambridge playing eleven, playing for Sussex and I Zingari. His father had also played for Sussex. Upon his general admission from university, Freeman-Thomas then volunteered for fifteen years for the Sussex Artillery, achieving the rank of major.

Marriage and political career

In 1892, Freeman-Thomas assumed the additional surname of ''Freeman'' by deed poll and married the Hon. Marie Brassey, the daughter of Thomas Brassey, then recently created Baron Brassey. Freeman-Thomas often cited her as a source of support, stating once: "My wife has been a constant inspiration and encouragement." The couple had two sons: Gerard, born 3 May 1893, and Inigo, born 25 July 1899. Gerard was killed in World War I on 14 September 1914, and Inigo eventually succeeded his father as Marquess of Willingdon.

In 1897 Freeman-Thomas was appointed aide-de-camp to his father-in-law, who was then the Governor of Victoria, Australia. Upon his return to the United Kingdom, Freeman-Thomas joined the Liberal Party and in 1900 was elected to the British House of Commons to represent the borough of Hastings. He then served as a junior lord of the Treasury in the Liberal Cabinet that sat from December 1905 to January 1906. Though he lost in the January 1906 elections, Freeman-Thomas returned to the House of Commons by winning the by-election for Bodmin, and, for some time, served as a secretary to the prime minister, H. H. Asquith. For his services in government, Freeman-Thomas was in 1910 elevated to the peerage as Baron Willingdon of Ratton in the County of Sussex, and the following year was appointed as Lord-in-waiting to King George V, becoming a favourite tennis partner of the monarch. His father-in-law was created Earl Brassey at the coronation in that year.

Governorship of Bombay

Willingdon was on 17 February 1913 appointed as the Crown Governor of Bombay, replacing the Lord Sydenham of Combe, and to mark this event, Willingdon was on 12 March 1913 honoured with induction into the Order of the Indian Empire as a Knight Grand Commander (additional). Within a year, however, the First World War had erupted, and India, as a part of the British Empire, was immediately drawn into the conflict. Lord Willingdon strove to serve the Allied cause, taking responsibility for treating the wounded from the Mesopotamian campaign. In the midst of those dark times, Mahatma Gandhi returned to Bombay from South Africa and Willingdon was one of the first persons to welcome him and invite him to Government House for a formal meeting. This was the first meeting Willingdon had with Gandhi and he later described the Indian spiritual leader as "honest, but a Bolshevik and for that reason very dangerous."

In 1917, the year before Willingdon's resignation of the governorship, a severe famine broke out in the Kheda region of the Bombay Presidency, which had far reaching effects on the economy and left farmers in no position to pay their taxes. Still, the government insisted that tax not only be paid but also implemented a 23% increase to the levies to take effect that year. Kheda thus became the setting for Gandhi's first '' satyagraha'' in India, and, with support from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Narhari Parikh, Mohanlal Pandya, and Ravishankar Vyas, organised a ''Gujarat sabha''. The people under Gandhi's influence then rallied together and sent a petition to Willingdon, asking that he cancel the taxes for that year. However, the Cabinet refused and advised the Governor to begin confiscating property by force, leading Gandhi to thereafter employ non-violent resistance to the government, which eventually succeeded and made Gandhi famous throughout India after Willingdon's departure from the colony. For his actions there, in relation to governance and the war effort, Willingdon was on 3 June 1918 appointed by the King as a Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India.

Governorship of Madras

Willingdon returned to the United Kingdom from Bombay only briefly before he was appointed on 10 April 1919 as the governor of Madras. This posting came shortly after the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms of 1918 were formalised by the Government of India Act, which distributed power in India between the executive and legislative bodies. Thus, in November 1920, Willingdon dropped the writs of election for the first election for the Madras Legislative Council; however, due to their adherence to Gandhi's non-cooperation movement

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