William Allardyce
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Sir William Lamond Allardyce, (14 November 1861 – 10 June 1930) was a career British civil servant in 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 c ...
who served as
governor of Fiji Fiji was a British Crown colony from 1874 to 1970, and an independent dominion in the Commonwealth from 1970 to 1987. During this period, the head of state was the British monarch, but in practice his or her functions were normally exercised loca ...
(1901–1902), the
Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouze ...
(1904–1914),
Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...
(1914–1920),
Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...
(1920–1922), and Newfoundland (1922–1928).


Biography

Allardyce was born near
Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...
, India, the son of Georgina Dickson Abbott and Colonel James Allardyce. Educated in
Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
, Scotland and at
Oxford Military College Oxford Military College was an all-male private boarding school and military academy in Cowley, Oxford, England, from 1876 to 1896. The military college opened on 7 September 1876. Prince George, Duke of Cambridge was the patron of the Oxfor ...
, at the age of 18, he joined the
British Civil Service His Majesty's Home Civil Service, also known as His Majesty's Civil Service, the Home Civil Service, or colloquially as the Civil Service is the permanent bureaucracy or secretariat of Crown employees that supports His Majesty's Government, which ...
in 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 c ...
. His brother
Kenneth Kenneth is an English given name and surname. The name is an Anglicised form of two entirely different Gaelic personal names: ''Cainnech'' and '' Cináed''. The modern Gaelic form of ''Cainnech'' is ''Coinneach''; the name was derived from a byn ...
was also a colonial administrator, serving as Secretary for Native Affairs in Fiji.Death of K.J. Allardyce
''
Pacific Islands Monthly ''Pacific Islands Monthly'', commonly referred to as "PIM", was a magazine founded in 1930 in Sydney by New Zealand born journalist R.W. Robson. Background ''Pacific Islands Monthly'' was started in Sydney in 1930. The first issue ran in August ...
'', May 1937, p71
Allardyce first posting was Fiji, where, just two years after his arrival, he was named acting Resident Commissioner for the island of
Rotuma Rotuma is a Fijian dependency, consisting of Rotuma Island and nearby islets. The island group is home to a large and unique Polynesian indigenous ethnic group which constitutes a recognisable minority within the population of Fiji, known as " ...
. The following year as magistrate and seven years later he was appointed to the Native Regulation Board and made the commissioner of the Supreme Court. In 1894, he was made Commissioner for Native Lands and given a seat in the Legislative Council. In 1895, he was appointed Native Commissioner, the chief liaison between the Fijian natives and the British. The following year he was appointed Receiver-General. He subsequently became Colonial Secretary and a member of the Executive Council in 1898. In 1904, Allardyce was appointed as Governor of the Falkland Islands. After ten years at the Falklands, he was then transferred to the Bahamas to become its governor, a position he held for six years. Allardyce then became governor of Tasmania but retired after only two years—taking the last three months as leave—as a result of his failure to obtain an increase in his salary of £2750. In fact, a statement made to the
Parliament of Tasmania The Parliament of Tasmania is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Tasmania. It follows a Westminster-derived parliamentary system and consists of the Governor of Tasmania, the Tasmanian House of Assembly (the lower house), and ...
on his salary and allowances was followed by a vote by the Legislative Assembly to abolish his office, although the same motion was defeated in the Legislative Council. Nevertheless, when he left office he was widely praised for his performance of the office. Allardyce was subsequently ordered to Newfoundland where he was to succeed Sir Charles Alexander Harris as Governor of Newfoundland, where he was invited to become patron of the Great War Veterans Association. He was the official Crown representative of the unveiling of the National War Memorial by Field Marshal the
Earl Haig Earl Haig is a title in the peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1919 for Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig. During the First World War, he served as commander of the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front in France and Bel ...
on 1 July 1924. He officiated at the opening of the other national war memorial, Memorial University College, on 15 September 1925. Allardyce as governor was a key promoter in the decision awarding jurisdiction over most of the
Labrador , nickname = "The Big Land" , etymology = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 ...
Peninsula to Newfoundland by the Privy Council. In 1916, Allardyce was made a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George by
King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Qu ...
. He was advanced to
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George III. It is named in honour ...
in 1927. Allardyce was noted as one of the most competent administrators ever appointed by the Colonial Office to serve as the official representative of the British Crown in Newfoundland and Labrador. Allardyce Range on the island of South Georgia is named for him.


Family

Allardyce married twice. First, in 1895, to Constance Angel Greene of Melbourne, Australia, daughter of Molesworth Richard Greene. She died in 1918; then, in 1920, he married Elsie Elizabeth Stewart, widow of A.C. Goodfellow. In 1923, Lady Allardyce helped start the Girl Guide movement in Newfoundland, and then in 1924, she established the Newfoundland Outport Nursing and Industrial Association (NONIA).


See also

* List of people from Newfoundland and Labrador


References


External links


Biography at Government House ''The Governorship of Newfoundland and Labrador''
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Allardyce, William Lamond 1861 births 1930 deaths Colonial Secretaries of Fiji Governors of Fiji Members of the Executive Council of Fiji Members of the Legislative Council of Fiji Governors of the Falkland Islands Governors of Tasmania Governors of the Dominion of Newfoundland Colonial Administrative Service officers Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George British governors of the Bahamas People from Aberdeen People educated at Oxford Military College British people in colonial India High Commissioners for the Western Pacific 20th-century Bahamian people 20th-century British politicians