Herbert Charles Chermside GCMG CB (1850 - 1929)

Born 31 Jul 1850 in Wilton, Wiltshire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Geraldine Katherine (Webb) Chermside — married 1899 in Chelsea, London, England

Husband of Clementine Maria (Reuter) Chermside — married 1920 in Knaresborough, Yorkshire, England

Died 24 Sep 1929 at age 79 in Knaresborough, Yorkshire, England

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Preceded by Charles Cochrane-Baillie, 2nd Baron Lamington, GCMG GCIE

9th Governor of Queensland 24th March 1902 to 10th October 1904

Succeeded by Sir Frederic Thesiger, 1st Viscount Chelmsford, GCSI GCMG GCIE GBE PC

Biography

Herbert Chermside GCMG CB is Notable.

Lieutenant General Sir Herbert Chermside GCMG CB was a senior British soldier who served as Governor of Queensland from 1902 to 1904.

Born Herbert Charles Chermside on 31st July 1850 at Wilton, Wiltshire, England, he was the second son of Reverend Richard Seymour Conway Chermside, rector of Wilton (and grandson of Sir Robert Alexander Chermside), and Emily Dawson.^[1] Educated at Eton and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Chermside graduated top of his year and was commissioned in the Royal Engineers in 1870.

After service on an Arctic expedition of 1873, Chermside was appointed military attaché in Turkey, then military vice-consul in Anatolia in 1876-83. He served with the Egyptian army in the Sudan and as governor of the Red Sea Littoral (1884-86), was consul in Kurdistan, then returned as military attaché to Constantinople in 1889-96, and was British military commissioner and commander in Crete in 1897-99. He served in the South African war as a brigade and later a divisional commander. After briefly commanding The Curragh, Ireland, he was appointed the first post-Federation Governor of Queensland in 1901. He was promoted Major General in 1898, and appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in 1880, Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1886, Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in 1897 and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG)) in 1899.

Chermside married twice: in 1899 to Geraldine Katherine Webb, daughter of W F Webb, of Newstead Abbey Notts (she died in 1910);^[2] and in 1920 at Knaresborough, Yorkshire, to Clementine Maria Stenbock nee Reuter, second daughter of Paul Julius, first Baron de Reuter, and widow of Count Otto Stenbock.^[3] Both marriages were childless.

He arrived in Brisbane on 24th March 1902 to find Queensland in the grip of a drought and economic recession. He immediately volunteered to forgo 15% of his vice-regal salary, and his sacrifice and approachable nature made him a popular figure amongst the Queensland public. However, concerned by the parliamentary attitude to the role of governor, Chermside decided to resign in 1904, although he delayed the announcement until a political crisis had been dealt with by granting a dissolution of parliament to Premier Sir Arthur Morgan after several failed attempts to establish a stable government. Once he had opened the new parliament, Chermside announced his retirement and left Queensland on 8th October 1904 on pre-retirement leave.

Sir Herbert retired from the British Army in 1907 as a Lieutenant General.

Sir Herbert Chermside passed away on 24th September 1929 in Knaresborough, Yorkshire West Riding.^[4]

The Brisbane suburb of Chermside is named in his honour.

Sources

1. ↑ UK FreeBMD Birth Index Sep qtr 1850, vol 8, page 482
2. ↑ UK FreeBMD Marriage Index Dec qtr 1899, vol 1a, page 800
3. ↑ UK FreeBMD Marriage Index Sep qtr 1920, vol 9a, page 253
4. ↑ UK FreeBMD Death Index Sep qtr 1929, vol 9a, page 125

• Paul D. Wilson, 'Chermside, Sir Herbert Charles (1850–1929)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/chermside-sir-herbert-charles-5575/text9511, published first in hardcopy 1979, accessed online 1 July 2018.
• Wikipedia:_Herbert_Chermside; accessed 30 Jun 2018.
• "England and Wales Census, 1861," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M7KY-FTJ : 3 March 2021), Hubert C Chermside in household of Richard S C Chermside, Wilton, Wiltshire, England, United Kingdom; from "1861 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO RG 9, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey.