Major-General Sir Harry St. George Ord GCMG, CB, RE, was born on 4 August 1819 in North Cray, Kent, England. He was the son of Henry Gough Ord and grandson of Craven Ord, a prominent antiquarian.

Education and Career

George Ord was educated at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, (1835 - 1837). He served in the Royal Engineers, (1837 - 1856), principally in the West Indies, West Africa, and the Anglo-French expedition to the Baltic, (1854). He held many important colonial posts, such as:

• Commissioner of the Gold Coast, (1855 - 1856)
• Commissioner at the Courts of Paris and the Hague, (1856 - 1857)
• Governor of Dominica, (1857 - 1861)
• Governor of Bermuda, (1861 - 1864)
• Special Commissioner to West Africa, (1864 - 1867)
• Governor of Straits Settlements, (1867 - 1873)
• Governor of Western Australia, (1877 - 1880)

Governor of Straits Settlements

Sir Harry Ord, was the first Colonial Office appointed as the Governor of the Straits Settlements, was at first given no instructions regarding the Colony's relations with the Malay States. He was unpopular in the Straits Settlements, but was an ambitious and energetic man, who was ready to do what he could to restore order and promote trade in the Peninsula. Conditions in Malaya at that time were extremely unsettled. The quarrels of the Malays were intensified by feuds between competing groups of Chinese miners, and the links of the Chinese with the British settlements threatened to involve these too in the trouble. After some experience of negotiating with Malays and Siamese, Ord worked out a policy under which he proposed to share the supervision of the Peninsula between Britain and Siam. This policy was disapproved by the Colonial office, and Sir Harry Ord was directed to abstain from all interference in the affairs of the Malay States.

Life

References

• Colonial Office List, various list, DNB
• One Hundred Years of Singapore (1819)
• C.D. Cowan, Nineteenth Century Malaya: The Origins of British Political Control, (1961)
• Sir Harry Ord Biography
• Sir Harry Ord Biography

See Also