Arthur Hamilton-Gordon, 1st Baron Stanmore

Who was Arthur Hamilton-Gordon, 1st Baron Stanmore?

Arthur Charles Hamilton-Gordon, 1st Baron Stanmore, GCMG, KJStJ was a British Liberal Party politician and colonial administrator. He had extensive contact with Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone.

Gordon was born in London in 1829. He was the youngest son of George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen and his second wife, Harriet Douglas. His mother was the widow of Viscount Hamilton. Gordon was educated privately and then at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was President of the Cambridge Union Society in 1849. After graduating in 1851, he worked as Assistant Private Secretary to the British Prime Minister between 1852 and 1855, and was a Member of Parliament for Beverley from 1854 to 1857, before holding a number of colonial governorships:

Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick, 1861–1866, securing New Brunswick's assent to Canadian Confederation

Governor of Trinidad, 1866–1870.

11th Governor of Mauritius, 21 Feb 1871 – 18 August 1874

Governor of Fiji from 1875 to 1880

Governor of New Zealand, 29 November 1880 – 24 June 1882

Governor of Ceylon, 1883–1890.

He was created Baron Stanmore, of Great Stanmore, in the County of Middlesex on 21 August 1893.