Agent-General

An Agent-General was the representative in the United Kingdom of the government of a British colony in Canada, South Africa, Australia or New Zealand and subsequently, of a Canadian Province or an Australian State. Australia and Canada's federal governments were represented by High Commissions.

By the 1990s, some Australian state governments regarded the office of their Agent-General in London as a costly anachronism, even for promoting tourism and investment, and have since been closed and subsumed into the Australian High Commission. The majority of Australian States continue to have Agents General in London as of 2006.

Many Canadian provinces similarly are no longer represented by an Agent-General, although Quebec has a Government Office (Délégation Générale du Québec à Londres) in London.

List of Agents-General for New South Wales

• William Colburn Mayne 1864–1871
• Charles Cowper 1871–1875
• William Forster 1876–1879
• Alexander Stuart 1879–1890
• Daniel Cooper c.1880s
• Saul Samuel 1880–1897
• Julian Emanuel Salomons 1899–1900
• Henry Copeland 1900–1904
• Timothy Augustine Coghlan 1905–1915, 1916–17, 1920–1925
• Bernhard Ringrose Wise 1915–1916
• Charles Gregory Wade 1917–1919
• David Robert Hall 1920
• Arthur Alfred Clement Cocks 1925
• Frederic Thesiger, 3rd Baron Chelmsford 1926–1927
• George Warburton Fuller 1928–1931
• Albert Charles Willis 1931–1932
• Albert Edward Heath 1937–1938
• Clifford Henderson Hay 1938–1939
• Arthur Denning 1958–?? (commissioner for New South Wales in the U.S.A.)

List of Agents-General for Queensland

• John Douglas 1869–1870
• Thomas Archer 1870–1872
• Richard Daintree 1872–1876
• Arthur Macalister 1876–1881
• James Francis Garrick 1884–1888, 1890–1895
• William Hemmant 1885 (acting)
• Sir Henry Wylie Norman 1896
• Horace Tozer 1898–1909
• Thomas Bilbe Robinson 1910–1919
• John McEwan Hunter 1919–1922
• John Arthur Fihelly 1922–1924
• John Saunders Huxham 1924–1929
• Edward Henry Macartney 1929–1931
• Leonard Henry Pike 1943–??
• William Alan Thompson Summerville 1964–1970
• Peter Roylance Delamothe 1971–1973

List of Agents-General for South Australia

• Francis Stacker Dutton 1865–1877
• Arthur Blyth 1877–1891
• John Cox Bray 1892–1894
• Thomas Playford II 1894–1898
• John Alexander Cockburn 1898
• Henry William Allerdale 1901–1905
• John Greeley Jenkins 1905–1908
• Frederick William Young 1915–1918
• Edward Lucas 1918–1925
• Henry Newman Barwell 1928–1933
• Lionel Laughton Hill 1933–1934
• Charles Francis Gerald McCann 1934–1951
• Malcolm Arthur Fraser Pearce 1961–1966
• Maurice de Rohan
• Bill Muirhead (current, as of 2008)

List of Agents-General for Tasmania

• Hon Adye Douglas (later Sir, Kt) 1886–1887
• Sir Arthur Blyth (acting) 1887–1888
• James A Youl CMG (later Sir, KCMG) (acting) 1888
• Hon Edward Braddon (later Right Hon Sir, PC KCMG) 1888–1893
• Sir Robert Herbert 1893–1896
• Sir Andrew Clarke (acting) 1896
• Sir Westby Percival 1896–1898
• Sir Andrew Clarke (acting) 1898–1899
• Hon Sir Philip Oakley Fysh, KCMG 1899–1901
• Sir Andrew Clarke (acting) 1901
• Hon Alfred Dobson, CMG 1901–1908
• Sir John McCall, KCMG, Kt 1909–1919
• Alfred Henry Ashbolt (later Sir, Kt) 1919–1924
• Lieut-Colonel R Eccles Snowden (later Sir, Kt) 1924–1930
• Darcy W Addison, CMG, ISO, MVO 1930–1931
• Herbert W Ely, ISO (acting) 1931–1937
• Hon Sir Claude Ernest Weymouth James, Kt 1937–1950
• Sir Eric E von Bibra, Kt, OBE 1950–1958
• Hon Sir Alfred J White, Kt 1959–1971
• Royce R Neville 1971–1978
• Hon William A Neilson, AC 1978–1981

List of Agents-General for Victoria

• Hugh Culling Eardley Childers 1857–1858
• George Frederic Verdon 1868
• Archibald Michie 1873–1879
• Charles Pasley 1880–1882
• Robert Murray Smith 1882–1886
• Graham Berry 1886–1891
• James Munro 1892
• Duncan Gillies 1893–1897
• Andrew Clarke 1899–1902 (and for Tasmania)
• John William Taverner 1904–1913
• Peter McBride 1913–1922
• John McWhae 1922–1924
• George Fairbairn 1924–1927
• Walter Leitch 1929–1933
• Richard Linton 1933–1939
• Murray William James Bourchier 1936–1937
• Albert Louis Bussau 1938–1942
• Norman Angus Martin 1945–1949
• John Henry Lienhop 1950–1956
• William Watt Leggatt 1956–
• Kenneth Andrew Finnin 1985 - 1988

List of Agents-General for Western Australia

• Sir Malcolm Fraser 1890–1898
• Edward Wittenoom 1898–1901
• Henry Bruce Lefroy 1901–1904
• Walter Hartwell James 1904–1907
• Cornthwaite Rason 1907–1911
• Cyril Jackson 1910–1911
• Newton James Moore 1911–1915?
• James Daniel Connolly 1917–1923
• Harry Pateshall Colebatch 1923–1927
• William Charles Angwin 1927–1933

References

• Australian Dictionary of Biography

External links

• Australian High Commission Website
• Quebec Government Office in London
• Victorian Government Agent-General