Maltese-British politician (1861?1940)
Gerald Paul Joseph Cajetan Carmel Antony Martin Strickland, 6th Count della Catena, 1st Baron Strickland
,
GCMG
(24 May 1861 ? 22 August 1940) was a Maltese and British politician and peer, who served as
Prime Minister of Malta
,
Governor of the Leeward Islands
,
Governor of Tasmania
,
Governor of Western Australia
and
Governor of New South Wales
, in addition to sitting successively in the
House of Commons
and
House of Lords
in the
Parliament of the United Kingdom
.
Early life
[
edit
]
Strickland was born in
Valletta
, the son of naval officer Commander Walter Strickland, from the ancient English
Strickland
family of
Sizergh
, and Maria Aloysia Bonici-Mompalao, the niece and heiress of Sir Nicholas Sceberras Bologna, fifth Count della Catena in Malta, whom Gerald succeeded in 1875. He was educated at
St Mary's College, Oscott
, and
Trinity College, Cambridge
(BA, LLB).
[1]
Upon graduating, he was admitted to
Inner Temple
in 1887 entitled to practise as a barrister-at-law. He gained the rank of
major
in the service of the
Royal Malta Militia
.
Elected in 1886 to the council of the government of Malta, Strickland began to take an active part in
Maltese politics
at an early age and in December 1887, he accompanied Dr.
Fortunato Mizzi
? founder of the Maltese
Nationalist Party
? to the first Colonial Conference in London to submit a scheme for a legislative assembly. The result was that the new Maltese Constitution of December 1887 was largely based on the joint Strickland-Mizzi proposals. In the following year, he was appointed as Assistant Secretary to Malta in 1888 and held the office of Chief Secretary of Malta in 1889, a post which he held till July 1902 when to avert more troubles in Malta which were created by his orders-in-council to increase taxation, he was appointed as
Governor of the Leeward Islands
in the Caribbean.
[2]
Sir Gerald and Lady Edeline Strickland left Southampton for
Antigua
in September 1902, and took up residence at
Government House
,
St Johns
on arrival.
[3]
He was appointed as
Governor of Tasmania
in 1904, serving as such until 1909, and then as
Governor of Western Australia
from 1909 to 1913. In the early years consequent upon
Australian Federation
he was involved in the delicate matter of State rights and the developing nature of the appointment, role and salaries of governors. Appointed as
Governor of New South Wales
in March 1913, on 30 May 1913 he was made a
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George
(GCMG).
[4]
He was a supporter of the Eugenics Education Society.
[5]
Political career
[
edit
]
In 1917, Strickland returned to Malta and, after the grant of Self-Government, formed the Anglo-Maltese Party in 1921, which soon afterward amalgamated with the Maltese Constitutional Party to become the
Constitutional Party
under his leadership. Strickland was the leader of the Opposition between 1921 and 1927. In 1924, he won the seat of
Lancaster
for the
Conservatives
in the
United Kingdom House of Commons
. He left the House of Commons in 1928 upon being made a peer.
[6]
After the 1927 election, Strickland had a majority in the Legislative Assembly and became Head of the Ministry (the fourth
Prime Minister of Malta
) from August 1927 until 1932.
[7]
Amongst the most important events of his government were the commencement of building works for
St. Luke's Hospital
in
Gwardaman?ia
and his clash with the
Senate
, which led to the issue of
Letters Patent
which curtailed its powers and his concurrent clash with the ecclesiastical authorities.
On 1 May 1930,
Sir Mauro Monsignor Caruana
,
Titular Archbishop
of
Rhodes
and
Bishop of Malta
, and
Mikiel Monsignor Gonzi
,
Bishop of Gozo
, issued a pastoral letter, read in all the churches of Malta and Gozo. In it, Archbishop Caruana and Bishop Gonzi declared that whoever voted for the
Constitutional Party
and its former coalition partner, the
Labour Party
, committed a mortal sin. That year he narrowly avoided assassination.
[8]
This mortal sin was also committed by those who read Strickland's newspapers, printed by his Progress Press, namely the
Daily Malta Chronicle
and
Ix-Xemx
. He subsequently began publishing
Il-Progress
and
Il-Berqa
. The clash between the Catholic bishops and the Constitutional Party led to the suspension of the Maltese Constitution following consultations between the British Governor and London.
[
citation needed
]
Between July 1932 and November 1933, Strickland was again the leader of the Opposition, and after the grant of a new Constitution in 1939, he became the leader of the elected majority in the Council of Government.
[
citation needed
]
Personal life
[
edit
]
Strickland married Lady Edeline Sackville-West (1869?1918), the daughter of the
7th Earl De La Warr
and the Honourable Constance Mary Elizabeth Cochrane-Wishart-Baillie, on 26 August 1891. They had six daughters, and two sons who died at an early age. Their first daughter married Henry Hornyold, became known as Mrs Hornyold-Strickland and chaired the Conservative Party Conference in 1947.
[9]
They had the following children:
- Reginald Strickland (1893?1893)
- Hon. Mary Christina Strickland (1895?1970)
- Hon. Cecilia Victoria Strickland (1897?1982)
- Hon.
Mabel Edeline Strickland
OBE (1899?1988)
- Walter Strickland (1901?1902)
- Margaret Angela Strickland (1903?1903)
- Hon. Henrietta May Strickland (1905?1975), who married
Robert Tatton Bower
- Hon. Dr. Constance Teresa Strickland LMSSA (1911?1979)
On 31 August 1926, following the death of Lady Edeline in 1918, Strickland married Margaret Hulton, daughter of the
newspaper proprietor
Edward Hulton
in the same church as his earlier wedding. She was made a
Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire
(DBE) in the
1937 Coronation Honours
.
[8]
Strickland was appointed a
Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George
(CMG) in 1889, for rendering invaluable services during a severe
cholera
epidemic. He was promoted to
Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George
in 1897. He was raised to the
Peerage of the United Kingdom
as
Baron Strickland
, of
Sizergh Castle
in the County of Westmorland, on 19 January 1928.
[10]
He died at
Villa Bologna
, his residence in
Attard
, and is buried in the family crypt at
St. Paul's Cathedral, Mdina
.
Honours
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Strickland (or Bologna-Strickland), Gerald Bologna, Count (STRT884C)"
.
A Cambridge Alumni Database
. University of Cambridge.
- ^
"No. 27457"
.
The London Gazette
. 25 July 1902. p. 4739.
- ^
"Court Circular".
The Times
. No. 36875. London. 17 September 1902. p. 7.
- ^
"No. 28724"
.
The London Gazette
. 30 May 1913. p. 3905.
- ^
The Sydney Morning Herald, 24 February 1914
- ^
Strickland, Sir Gerald (1861?1940)
; retrieved 14 February 2018.
- ^
Kaul, Chandrika.
"The Local and the Global: Malta, Media and Empire in the Twentieth Century"
(PDF)
.
www.um.edu.mt
. Retrieved
14 February
2018
.
- ^
a
b
Walsh, G. P. (1990).
"Strickland, Sir Gerald (1861?1940)"
.
Australian Dictionary of Biography
. Vol. 12. Canberra: National Centre of Biography,
Australian National University
.
ISBN
978-0-522-84459-7
.
ISSN
1833-7538
.
OCLC
70677943
.
- ^
National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations, 72 Annual Conference
- ^
"No. 33349"
.
The London Gazette
. 20 January 1928. p. 438.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Montalto, J.,
The Nobles of Malta-1530?1800
, Midsea Books Ltd, Malta, 1980.
- Burkes Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of the UK
(106th ed.) (London 2002).
- Giles Ash, S., "The Nobility of Malta", Publishers Enterprises Group (PEG Ltd 1988).
- Koster, A.,
Prelates and politicians in Malta
, (Amsterdam University 1977).
- Carnwath, Joan (2004). "Strickland, Gerald Paul Joseph Cajetan Carmel Antony Martin, Baron Strickland (1861?1940)".
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
(online ed.). Oxford University Press.
doi
:
10.1093/ref:odnb/36350
.
(Subscription or
UK public library membership
required.)
External links
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