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Charles Henry Darling

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Sir Charles Darling
3rd Governor of Victoria
In office
11 September 1863 – 7 May 1866
MonarchVictoria
Preceded bySir Henry Barkly
Succeeded byJohn Manners-Sutton, 3rd Viscount Canterbury
Personal details
Born19 February 1809
Nova Scotia, Canada
Died25 January 1870 (aged 60)
Lansdown Crescent, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England

Sir Charles Henry Darling KCB (19 February 1809 – 25 January 1870) was a British colonial governor.

Early life

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Darling was born on 19 February 1809 in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. He was the son of Isabella (née Cameron) and Henry Charles Darling. His father was a British Army officer who was attached to the colonial militia in Nova Scotia;[1] he later attained the rank of major-general and served as lieutenant-governor of Tobago. His maternal grandfather Charles Cameron was a long-serving governor of the Bahamas.[2]

Darling was educated in England at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. In December 1826 he enlisted as an ensign in the 57th Regiment of Foot and was posted to the colony of New South Wales. He served for a period as assistant private secretary to his uncle, Governor Ralph Darling. He was promoted lieutenant in 1830 and the following year return to England to complete further training at Sandhurst. He was appointed military secretary to Lionel Smith, Governor of Barbados, in 1833 and followed Smith to Jamaica in 1836.[1]

Colonial governor

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He started his colonial service while in Jamaica, during which time he often clashed with leaders of the free people of color who were elected to the island's Assembly, such as Robert Osborn. He became Lieutenant-Governor of St. Lucia in 1847, and he became Lieutenant-Governor of the Cape Colony in South Africa in 1851. A town in South Africa, on the West Coast of the country was named after Darling. He became Governor of Newfoundland in 1855. Darling became governor and captain-chief of Jamaica in 1857 then governor of Victoria, Australia from 1863 to 1866.

During his time in Newfoundland, Darling came into disagreement with prominent people in the colony regarding fishing rights. He supported the British recommendations to grant the French more fishing rights in waters of Newfoundland between Cape St. John and Cape Ray. Ultimately, the dispute ended his term in office.

Personal life

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In 1835, Darling married Anne Wilhelmina Dalzell, a member of a wealthy plantation-owning family from Barbados.[2] They had a son who died in infancy and Anne herself died in 1837. Through Anne's will, Darling would have received some money, although she died before her mother who had owned the slaves.[3][4]

He was then married, at Christ Church, Barbados, on 14 December 1839 to Mary Ann Nurse (who died of yellow fever in St Lucia on 6 November 1848). His third marriage, at Ilfracombe, North Devon, was on 10 December 1851 to Elizabeth Isabella Caroline Salter (c. 1820 – 10 December 1900).[citation needed]

Charles Henry Darling died at Lansdown Crescent, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, aged 60.[citation needed]

Legacy

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Darling Street in the Ballarat south suburb of Redan is named for him.[5]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Thompson, Frederic F. (1976). "Darling, Sir Charles Henry". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. 9. University of Toronto/Université Laval.
  2. ^ a b Crowley, F. K. (1972). "Darling, Sir Charles Henry (1809–1870)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol. 4 (MUP ed.). Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  3. ^ "Ann[e] Wilhelmina Darling (née Dalzell) - Profile & Legacies Summary". Legacies of British Slave-ownership. University College London.
  4. ^ Coventry, C.J. (2019). "Links in the Chain: British slavery, Victoria and South Australia". Before/Now. 1 (1). doi:10.17613/d8ht-p058.
  5. ^ City of Ballarat, 5 January 2012. Roads and Open Space Index, pg.14, Ballarat: City of Ballarat
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Government offices
Preceded by Governor of Barbados and the Windward Islands
1841
Succeeded by
Preceded by Lieutenant-Governor of St. Lucia
1848–1852
Succeeded by
Preceded by Governor of the Cape Colony, acting
1854
Succeeded by
Preceded by Governor of Newfoundland
1855–1857
Succeeded by
Preceded by Governor of Jamaica
1857–1863
Succeeded by
Preceded by Governor of Victoria
1863–1866
Succeeded by