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 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 Governors of the Australian states, performs c ...

from 1868 until he died in office in 1871.

Early life

Blackall was born in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, Ireland into a prosperous Irish family and attended

Trinity College, Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

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, as a major.

Public life

He entered Irish public life in 1833, becoming

High Sheriff of Longford The High Sheriff of Longford was the British Crown's judicial representative in County Longford, Ireland from the 16th century until 1922, when the office was abolished in the new Free State and replaced by the office of Longford County Sheriff. ...

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 mem ...

for the constituency of

Longford Longford () is the county town of County Longford in Ireland. It has a population of 10,008 according to the 2016 census. It is the biggest town in the county and about one third of the county's population lives there. Longford lies at the meet ...

Blackall Memorial Fountain, Ipswich, Queensland 05

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 to deal with the colonial affairs of British North America but required also to oversee the increasing number of col ...

, 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 by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

, 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 political constitution or other fundamental governing law is perceived to be unable to resolve. There are several variations to this d ...

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 Assembl ...

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's largest cemet ...

, 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. In the the locality of Blackall had a population of 1,416 people. The town is the service centre for the Blackall-Tambo Region. The dominant industry ...

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 5,934 people. Geography East Brisbane is located south-east of the CBD. It is mostly residential, with some s ...

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 British 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