Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/559

 1899.]

OBITUAEY.

135

Bight Hon. Sir George Bo wen, P.O., O.O.M.G. — George Ferguson Bowen, the son of the Rev. Edward Bowen, of Taughboyne, Co. Donegal, was born in 1821, and was educated at Charter- house and Trinity College, Oxford. He graduated 1844 in the First Class in Classics, and was elected shortly after a Fellow of Brasenose. He entered as a law-student at Lincoln's Inn, but was never called, having been appointed President of the University of Corfu, where he acquired a perfect^ know- ledge of Italian and Modern Greek. He also wrote the "Handbook for Greece" in Murray's series, "Ithaca in 1860," etc. He was subsequently appointed Secretary to the Govern- ment of Corfu, and was holding the post in 1868 when Mr. Gladstone was sent out by Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, as Lord High Commissioner. In recog- nition of his services on this occasion, although the recommendations of the Commissioner were not carried into effect until 1868, Mr. Bowen was created K.C.M.G.

On his return to England he was offered and accepted the Governorship of the newly-formed Colony of Queens- land, on the north-east coast of Australia, and hitherto regarded as forming part of New South Wales. He set himself to master the con- ditions of the great sheep-rearing country, and to conciliate the squatters of Darling Downs and the merchants of Moreton Bay. His despatches to the Colonial Office differed greatly from the ordinary style of such docu- ments, and were replete with classical analogies and quick appreciations of social colonial life. By his tact he succeeded in making loyalty popular, and laid the foundations of imperial federation by insisting upon a com- bined system of national defences. He took a great interest in geograph- ical research, and himself took part in an exploring expedition in 1862, when much of the northern coast of the Australasian continent was visited for the first time. He also urged upon the responsible authorities the claims of classical education, and during the financial crisis of 1866 by his firmness in declining to sanction a forced cur- rency of paper saved the colony from a financial crisis. His services were so important and his popularity so great that his governorship was prolonged for two years beyond the regular period.

In 1867 on the retirement of Sir George Grey, Sir George Bowen was appointed Governor of New Zealand, where the embers of the Maori War

were still smouldering, and native dis- content general. The new Governor at once entered upon a policy of recon- ciliation, personally seeking conferences with the native chiefs, and repressing the high-handed dealings of the col- onists with stern impartiality. The result of his policy was the complete appeasement of the islands, and the establishment of representative gov- ernment on a firm basis. On the conclusion of his term of office in New Zealand, he was transferred in 1873 to Victoria without returning to England, where his tact and powers of concilia- tion were put to a test by the constantly recurring changes of ministers, and the differences between the two Houses of the Legislature. Matters at length reached a deadlock ; but, notwithstand- ing the attacks made upon him, he successfully vindicated his course of action, which left to his responsible ministers the solution of the difficulty without his intervention. In 1879, on the expiration of his term in Victoria, he was offered and accepted the Gov- ernorship of Mauritius, where he suc- cessfully applied the coolie labour code, introduced by his predecessor, Sir A. Phayre. His departure in 1888 was equally regretted by the French and British inhabitants of the island, and on his return to Paris he was enter- tained at a banquet by the French Mauritians. After a few months' rest Sir George Bowen was sent to Hong- Kong, where his administration was uneventful although it coincided with the anxious period of the Franco- Chinese War, and strained relations with Russia. He took advantage of his opportunities, however, to visit both Pekin and Japan, where he was received by the Emperor and treated with distinction. With this governor- ship his official life ended, but in 1888 he was sent to Malta with Sir G. Baden-Powell, M.P., on a Royal Com- mission to report on the working of the new constitution given to the island.

Sir George Bowen married in 1866 Diamantina, daughter of Count Roma, President of the Ionian Islands, who accompanied him through his varied experiences, and died in 1898, and in 1896 he married the daughter of Rev. Dr. Luby, of Trinity College, Dublin, and widow of Rev. Henry White. The later years of his life were devoted to the enjoyment of the scholarship which from his earliest manhood he had cultivated, and of which he unceasingly advocated the uses and pleasures. He died at Brighton on February 21, after a short illness, from an attack of bronchitis.