01/09/2020
My last piece on Eddie’ John-boy Eyre,
On his return to Adelaide Eyre wrote to Governor Sir George Gipps offering to lead an expedition from Moreton Bay to Port Essington, but instead in October 1841 he accepted appointment as resident magistrate and protector of Aborigines with a salary of 300 pounds at Moorundie on the River Murray. There he made notable success in dealing with aboriginals. His own words justified;
Moorundie was a district densely populated by Natives and in which prior to 1841 no settler had ventured to locate, and where (before I was stationed there) frightful scenes of bloodshed, rapine and hostility between the natives and parties coming overland with stock had been a frequent occurrence, but where, from my time of arrival, and up to the date of me leaving not a single case of serious injury or aggression ever took place on the part of the natives against the Europeans whilst the district became rapidly and extensively occupied by settlers and stock.
In December 1884 Eyre was given leave and sailed for England taking with him two aboriginal boys to be educated in England at his own expense. On the voyage he prepared his journals for publication.
In 1846 he was appointed lieutenant-governor of New Zealand on a salary of 800 pounds and a living allowance of 400 pounds with headquarters in Wellington. The withdrawal by governor (sir) George Grey of his living allowance and a substitution of a small forage allowance caused a bitter quarrel between Grey and Eyre. Their relationships became bitterly worse and although Eyre acted foolishly on some occasions, Grey behaved in such extraordinarily domineering fashion that Eyres situation was intolerable. He returned to England in 1853 and in 1954 was appointed lieutenant-governor of St Vincent in the West Indies where he remained until 1860 when he became acting governor of the Leeward Islands. During this period he proved himself a capable and humane administrator.
In 1861 he became acting governor of Jamaica 🇯🇲 and in 1864 he was appointed governor in-chief. For theee years in the vicious political atmosphere Eyre had had only temporarily authority, but despite unpopularity he was not a bad governor. Then, on the 11th of October 1865 he was faced with a serious negro riot at Morant Bay. Interpreting this as a first step in a general rebellion, Eyre declaration martial law in the country of Surrey. Except for Kingston, and the armed forces began an o**y of reprisals which by the end of martial law on the 13th of November had led to the killing of 608 persons. The flogging of 600 and the burning of 1000 dwellings. George William Gordon. A coloured member of legislature, whom Eyre and many others considered to be the instigator of the so-called rebellion, was arrested in Kingston (where there was no martial law) taken time Morant Bay, tried by court and hanged on the 23rd of October. Eyre was hailed as the saviour of Jamaica but speedily denounced as a murderer and a monster of cruelty in England.
A royal commission found that Eyre had acted with commendable promptitude but unnecessary rigour.
He was relieved of his Governorship and recalled to England, where he became the centre of intellectual welfare between the Jamaica Committee supported by J.S. Mill, Thomas Huxley, Thomas Hughes, Herbert Spencer, and others and the Eyre defence committee supported by Carlyle. Charles Kingsley, Tennyson, Ruskin and others. Proceedings were brought against Eyre three times, but each time dismissed; Eyre’s interpretations of martial law has become celebrated case in legal history. In a public speech at Bow Street Eyre defended himself in a very dignified account of his actions, but otherwise, until his death, he maintained a stoical silence. The poignant contrast remains between the friend of Wylie and humane protector of the Aboriginals in Australia, and’ the monster of Jamaica’. The obstinacy that gave him endurance as an explorer was his undoing as governor in Jamaica. Yet he had been a successful governor of Antigua and the Leeward Islands. Perhaps the key to Eyre’s actions may lie in those unhappy years in New Zealand and when Grey overrode his authority and undermined his confidence?
In 1872 Rhe British government ordered payment of Eyre’s legal expenses, and in 1874 Disraeli’s ministry gave him a pension as a retired colonial governor. He retired to Walreddron Manor, near Tavistock, where he lived in seclusion until his death on the 30rh of November 1901. He was buried in Whitechurch churchyard, near Tavistock, survived by his widow, Adelaide F***y daughter of Captain Ormond, R.N., whom he had married in 1850 and also by his four sons and one daughter.
May his name forever be remembered !
Edward John Eyre - a historic “little piece of Aus “
