John Baird, 1st Viscount Stonehaven

John Lawrence Baird, 1st Viscount Stonehaven, Bt, GCMG, DSO PC, JP, DL (* April 27, 1874 in Chelsea, London, United Kingdom, † August 20 1941 in Stonehaven, Scotland ) was a British politician and the eighth Governor-General of Australia.

Early life

Baird was born in Chelsea, London, the son of Sir Alexander Baird, 1st Baronet, a wealthy member of parliament. He attended Eton College and Oxford University, but abandoned his studies at Oxford. Then hit Baird a military career. In 1894, Baird served as aide- de-camp of the Governor of New South Wales and then went into the diplomatic service. His wife Ethel Sydney Keith - Falconer he married in 1905. She inherited in 1966 after the death of her father the title of Countess of Kintore and was in 1974, when she died, the oldest member of the House of Lords.

Political career

Parliament

John Baird was elected in 1912 as Conservative for the Rugby district in the House of Commons. In the years 1922 to January 1924 he was Transport Minister in the governments of Andrew Bonar Law and Stanley Baldwin. Subsequently, the Labour Party of Ramsay MacDonald new strongest power in the country. After the Conservatives after less than a year in the opposition again ruling party were already in December 1924, Baird accepted the offer to go as Governor General to Australia. Subsequently, he received the title Baron Stonehaven and was admitted as a Knight Grand Cross in the Order of St Michael and St George.

Australia

Australian Prime Minister Stanley Bruce have been several proposals and he eventually chose John Baird as the new Governor-General of. His choice Baird owed to one of his political experience and on the other its moderate Article

Baird, meanwhile, as Baron Stonehaven, arrived in Australia in October 1925. He had from the beginning a good relationship with Bruce. During the national conference in 1926 in London the role of the governors-general was abolished as a diplomat and as an intermediary between the British government and its former colonies, so that Lord Stonehaven only held ceremonial duties.

In his tenure, some innovations. In May 1927 Lord Stonehaven opened the first session of the Australian Parliament in the new Parliament House in Canberra. Even the Governor-General received a fixed residence, the Government House in Canberra. This also meant an end to the travel between the former official residences in Sydney and Melbourne.

In September 1929, Bruce unexpectedly lost the majority in the House of Representatives so that he asked Baird to the dissolution of the government. Although Parliament was only one year in office, Baird agreed immediately. In October of the same year the party lost the elections of Bruce and James Scullin of the Australian Labor Party was elected as the new prime minister. The relationship between Baird and Scullin was ok, but not friendship, so that Scullin the incumbent Governor-General Baird not even informed about the election of his successor, than that in October 1930 left Australia.

Return to the UK

After his return to the UK he was appointed Chairman of the Conservative Party and rose to the Viscount Stonehaven.

On August 20, 1941 Stonehaven died at the age of 67 years in Scotland Stonehaven from a heart condition. He left behind his wife, two sons and three daughters. His titles went to his eldest son, who later also inherited the title of his mother.

Swell

Chris Cunneen: John Lawrence Baird. In: Douglas Pike ( ed.) Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Victoria 1966 ff (English)
Gutenberg.net.au Biography

Viscount
Governor-General (Australia)
Minister (United Kingdom)
Conservative Party Member
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George
Support of the Distinguished Service Order
Member of the House of Commons (United Kingdom)
Politicians ( 20th century)
Briton
Born in 1874
Died in 1941
Man

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