George Bowen

The Right Honourable Sir George Bowen GCMG
1st Governor of Queensland
In office 10 December 1859 – 4 January 1868
Monarch	Queen Victoria
Succeeded by	Samuel Blackall
5th Governor of New Zealand
In office 5 February 1868 – 19 March 1873
Monarch	Queen Victoria
Preceded by	Sir George Grey
Succeeded by	Sir James Fergusson
5th Governor of Victoria
In office 30 July 1873 – 22 February 1879
Monarch	Queen Victoria
Preceded by	Sir John Manners-Sutton
Succeeded by	George Phipps, 2nd Marquess of Normanby
9th Governor of Hong Kong
In office 30 March 1883 – 6 October 1887
Monarch	Queen Victoria
Preceded by	Sir John Pope Hennessy
Succeeded by	Sir George William Des Vœux
Personal details
Born	(1821-11-02)2 November 1821 County Donegal, Ireland, UK
Died	21 February 1899(1899-02-21) (aged 77) Brighton, Sussex, England, UK
Nationality	British
Spouse(s)	Contessa Diamantina Roma Florence Bowen
Alma mater	Brasenose College, Oxford
Profession	colonial administrator

Sir George Ferguson Bowen GCMG (2 November 1821 – 21 February 1899) was a British colonial administrator whose appointments included postings to the Ionian Islands, Queensland (Australia), New Zealand, Victoria (Australia), Mauritius and Hong Kong.

Early life

George Bowen was born the eldest son of the Rev. Edward Bowen, in Taughboyne, County Donegal, Ireland. He was educated at Charterhouse School and Trinity College, Oxford, where two of his predecessors were also educated. Bowen, twice President of the Union, was awarded a first class degree in classics in 1844, and was elected a fellow of Brasenose College. He received an MA degree in 1847 and entered Lincoln's Inn in 1844. From 1847 to 1851 he was president of the Ionian University of Corfu.

Service in the Ionian Islands

In 1854 George Bowen served as the chief secretary of government in the Ionian Islands. While in that post, he married the Contessa Diamantina Roma on 28 April 1856. Diamantina was the daughter of Conte Giorgio-Candiano Roma and his wife Contessa Orsola, née di Balsamo. The Roma family were local aristocracy; her father being the President of the Ionian Senate, titular head of the Ionian Islands, from 1850 to 1856.

Governor of Queensland

Five years later in 1859, he was appointed the first Governor of Queensland, a colony that had just been separated from New South Wales. He was interested in the exploration of Queensland and in the establishment of a volunteer force, but incurred some unpopularity by refusing to sanction the issue of inconvertible paper money during the financial crisis of 1866.

Governor of New Zealand

In 1867 Bowen was made Governor of New Zealand, where he was successful in reconciling the Māori reaction to the British rule there, and saw the end of the struggle between the colonists and the natives. (For a rather different view of the conflict and its partial resolution, see New Zealand land wars). He also instituted the New Zealand Cross, one of the rarest bravery awards in the world, equivalent to the Victoria Cross.

Governor of Victoria

In 1872 Bowen was transferred to Victoria (Australia) as Governor of Victoria, where he embarked on an endeavour to reduce the expenses of the colony.

Governor of Mauritius

In 1879 George Bowen became became Governor of Mauritius.

Governor of Hong Kong

On 30 March 1883, Bowen was made Governor of Hong Kong, a position in which he served until 1887, when he retired due to ill health. This was his last post in the Colonial Service.

During his tenure, Bowen established the Royal Observatory, which became the meteorological institute for all of Hong Kong. He also established the first college in the territory, and ordered the construction of the Typhoon Shelter in Causeway Bay, and a government hospital.

Post-governorship

Bowen retired to England after his tenure as Governor of Hong Kong, and was appointed as a chief of a Royal Commission which was sent to Malta with regard to the new constitution for the island in December 1887. All recommendations made by Bowen were adopted. Afterwards, Bowen served as a privy councillor.

Personal life

Sir George Bowen

Bowen was married twice.

His first wife was Contessa Diamantina Roma, daughter of Count Candiano di Roma. They had the following children:

• first child, a son who died twelve days old, born in the [[Ionian Islands]
• Adelaide Diamantina (Nina), born 17 August 1858 in the Ionian Islands
• Zoe Caroline, born 28 August 1860 in Brisbane
• Agnes Herbert, born 26 July 1862 in Brisbane
• George William Howard, born 9 April 1864 in Brisbane

Diamantina died in London in 1893 aged 70 years old.

George married his second wife, Letitia Florence White, in late 1896 at Chelsea, London. She was the daughter of Dr T. Luby.

George Ferguson Bowen died on 21 Feburary 1899 in Brighton, Sussex, England aged 77 years old. He died from bronchitis after a short illness of 2 days

Honours

• K.C.M.G., 1856
• G.C.M.G., 1860
• Privy Councillor, 1886
• Honorary DCL Degree, Oxford, 1875
• Honorary LLD Degree, Cambridge, 1886.

Literary works

• Ithaca, 1850 (London, 1854 translated into Greek in 1859)
• Mount Athos, Thessaly and Epirus (London, 1852);
• Murray's Handbook for Greece (London, 1854).
• Thirty Years of Colonial Government (London, 1889, edited by S. Lane-Poole)

Places named in his honour

• The town of Bowen, Queensland
• Bowen Road, and Bowen Drive in Hong Kong.
• Bowen Street (now part of the RMIT campus) in Melbourne, Victoria

His wife Diamantina appears to have been more popular than George in Queensland, as there are many Queensland places named after her.

External links

• Dictionary of Australian Biography - Project Gutenberg

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)