Historical records matching Edward John Eyre, FRGS
view all 17
Immediate Family
-
-
-
-
daughter -
-
son
-
-
daughter -
-
mother
-
father
-
brother
About Edward John Eyre, FRGS
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/33060?docPos=1
1843 - awarded the Founder's Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society "For his enterprising and extensive explorations in Australia, under circumstances of peculiar difficulty" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Medal_(RGS)
In some of the obituaries in Australian newspapers he was said to have been FRGS - but this is not mentioned in the Dictionary of National Biography - perhaps the above mentioned Gold Medal was confused with Fellowship?
The following from Wikipedia:
English land explorer of the Australian continent, colonial administrator, and a controversial Governor of Jamaica.
South Australia's Lake Eyre, Eyre Peninsula, Eyre Creek, Eyre Highway (the main highway from South Australia to Western Australia), and the Eyre Hotel in Whyalla are named in his honour, as are the villages of Eyreton and West Eyreton in Canterbury, New Zealand.
Eyre was born in Whipsnade, Bedfordshire, shortly before his family moved to Hornsea, Yorkshire, where he was christened.[1] His parents were Rev. Anthony William Eyre and Sarah (née Mapleton).[2] After completing grammar school at Louth and Sedbergh, he moved to Sydney rather than join the army or go to university. He gained experience in the new land by boarding with and forming friendships with prominent gentlemen and became a flock owner when he bought 400 lambs a month before his 18th birthday.[3] When South Australia was founded, Eyre brought 1,000 sheep and 600 cattle overland from Monaro, New South Wales to Adelaide and sold them for a large profit.
With this money, Eyre set out to explore the interior of South Australia, with two separate expeditions north to the Flinders Ranges and west to beyond Ceduna.
From 1848 to 1853, he served as Lieutenant-Governor of New Munster Province in New Zealand under Sir George Grey. He married Miss Adelaide Ormond in 1850. She was the sister of Captain James Ormond, R.N.
From 1854 he was Governor of several Caribbean island colonies.
As Governor of the Jamaica, Eyre, fearful of an island wide uprising, brutally suppressed the Morant Bay Rebellion, and had many black peasants killed. Hundreds were flogged. He also authorised the execution of George William Gordon, a mixed-race colonial assemblyman who was suspected of involvement in the rebellion.
These events created great controversy in Britain, resulting in demands for Eyre to be arrested and tried for murdering Gordon. John Stuart Mill organised the Jamaica Committee, which demanded his prosecution and included some well-known British liberal intellectuals (such as John Bright, Charles Darwin, Frederic Harrison, Thomas Hughes, Thomas Huxley, John Tyndall, and Herbert Spencer). A rival committee was set up by Thomas Carlyle for the defence, arguing that Eyre had acted decisively to restore order. His supporters included John Ruskin, Charles Kingsley, Charles Dickens and Alfred Lord Tennyson. Twice Eyre was charged with murder, but the cases never proceeded.
The case went to the UK Court of Exchequer as Phillips v Eyre (1870) LR 6 QB 1, Exchequer Chamber. The case was influential in setting a precedent in English and Australian law over the conflict of laws, and choice of law to be applied in international torts cases.[4]
(copied from Wikipedia)
Further details in Australian Dictionary of Biography: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/eyre-edward-john-2032
view all 12
Edward John Eyre, FRGS's Timeline
| 1815 |
August 5, 1815
|
Dunstable, UK
|
|
| 1851 |
July 25, 1851
|
Wellington, New Zealand
|
|
| 1853 |
March 23, 1853
|
Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand
|
|
| 1856 |
December 1856
|
St Vincent, West Indies
|
|
|
1856
|
St Vincent, West Indies
|
||
| 1861 |
1861
|
Dean, Oxfordshire, England (United Kingdom)
|
|
| 1863 |
1863
|
Jamaica
|
|
| 1865 |
December 22, 1865
|
Hamstead House (in the Blue Mountains), Jamaica, West Indies
|
|
| 1871 |
October 30, 1871
|
Bridgwater, Somerset, England (United Kingdom)
|