Dominick Daly

Who was Dominick Daly?

Sir Dominick Daly was the Governor of Prince Edward Island from 11 July 1854 to 25 May 1859 and later Governor of South Australia from 4 March 1862 until his death on 19 February 1868.

He was born in Ardfry, County Galway, Ireland in 1798 and studied in Birmingham. In 1823, he came to Lower Canada as secretary to Lieutenant-Governor Sir Francis Nathaniel Burton. In 1827, he was appointed provincial secretary for Lower Canada. He was a member of the Special Council of Lower Canada from 1840 to 1841. After the Act of Union in 1840, it became a prerequisite for his post that he be elected and he ran successfully in the Canada East riding of Mégantic in 1841. In 1841, he was appointed provincial secretary of Canada East and a member of the Executive Council. When the council resigned en masse in November 1843 in a dispute with Governor Sir Charles Theophilus Metcalfe, Daly chose to remain, which was viewed as a betrayal by Reformers. This left Daly as acting head of government for several weeks. In 1844, he became provincial secretary for both Canada East and Canada West. In March 1845, he was challenged to a duel by Reformer Thomas Cushing Aylwin; shots were fired but no one was injured. Daly was removed from the Executive Council in 1848 when Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine came to power; he returned to England and served on a commission of inquiry.