Samuel Wensley Blackall (1 May 1809 – 2 January 1871) was an Irish soldier and politician, who was the second

Governor of Queensland The governor of Queensland is the representative of the monarch, currently King Charles III, in the state of Queensland. In an analogous way to the governor-general of Australia, governor-general at the national level, the governor Governors of ...

from 1868 until he died in office in 1871.

Early life

Blackall was born in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, Ireland into a prosperous Irish family and attended

Trinity College, Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Univ ...

at the age of 15, but did not graduate. In 1827 he joined the 85th (Bucks Volunteers) Regiment of Foot, as an ensign and was appointed a lieutenant in 1832. He sold his commission in 1833 after five years service and joined the

Royal Longford Militia The Royal Longford Rifles was an Irish Militia regiment raised in County Longford in 1793. It saw action during the Irish Rebellion of 1798, when it was involved in the rout known as the 'Castlebar Races'. It later became a battalion of the Rifl ...

, as a major.

Public life

Blackall entered Irish public life in 1833, becoming High Sheriff of Longford for 1833 and, several years later,

high sheriff of County Tyrone The High Sheriff of Tyrone is the Sovereign's judicial representative in County Tyrone. Initially an office for lifetime, assigned by the Sovereign, the High Sheriff became annually appointed from the Provisions of Oxford in 1258. Besides his ju ...

for 1862. In between those appointments, he spent four years as an MP in the

British House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 memb ...

for the constituency of

Longford Longford () is the county town of County Longford in Ireland. It had a population of 10,952 at the 2022 census. It is the biggest town in the county and about one third of the county's population lives there. Longford lies at the meeting of ...

From 1851 to 1857, he worked in the colonial service as Lieutenant-Governor of Dominica. After some trouble with the

Colonial Office The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created in 1768 from the Southern Department to deal with colonial affairs in North America (particularly the Thirteen Colo ...

, he returned to colonial service as governor of

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

, then governor in chief at the West African Settlements from 1865, and then

from 1868. Blackall's tenure as governor was dominated by a

constitutional crisis In political science, a constitutional crisis is a problem or conflict in the function of a government that the constitution, political constitution or other fundamental governing law is perceived to be unable to resolve. There are several variat ...

caused by a deadlock in the

Legislative Assembly of Queensland The Legislative Assembly of Queensland is the sole chamber of the unicameral Parliament of Queensland established under the Constitution of Queensland. Elections are held every four years and are done by full preferential voting. The Assembly ...

Death and legacy

By 1870, Blackall's health was declining rapidly, and shortly after selecting the highest burial site at the new

Toowong Cemetery Toowong Cemetery is a heritage-listed cemetery on the corner of Frederick Street and Mt Coot-tha Road, Toowong, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was established in 1866 and formally opened in 1875. It is Queensland, Queensland's lar ...

, he died in office on 2 January 1871. The town of

Blackall Blackall is a rural town and locality in the Blackall-Tambo Region, Queensland, Australia. The town is the service centre for the Blackall-Tambo Region. The dominant industry in the area is grazing with over 70 homesteads in the locality (as ...

in Queensland was named after him, as was the

Blackall Range The Blackall Range is a mountain range in South East Queensland, Australia. The first European explorer in the area was Ludwig Leichhardt. It was named after Samuel Blackall, the second Governor of Queensland. The Blackall Range dominates the ...

and Blackall Terrace in

East Brisbane East Brisbane is an inner southern suburb of the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , East Brisbane had a population of 6,186 people. Geography East Brisbane is located south-east of the CBD. It is mostly residential, with som ...

and the merchant ship '' SS Governor Blackall''.

References

External links

*
Blackall, Samuel Wensley
— Brisbane City Council Grave Location Search * {{DEFAULTSORT:Blackall, Samuel 1809 births 1871 deaths Military personnel from Dublin (city) UK MPs 1847–1852 Governors of Queensland Royal Irish Fusiliers officers Longford Militia officers Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Longford constituencies (1801–1922) Burials at Toowong Cemetery High sheriffs of Tyrone High sheriffs of Longford British Dominica people British colonial governors and administrators in Oceania