Charles Wallace Alexander Napier (Cochrane-Baillie) Cochrane-Baillie IInd Baron Lamington GCMG GCIE (1860 - 1940)

Born 29 Jul 1860 in St George Hanover Square, London, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Husband of Mary Houghton (Hozier) Cochrane-Baillie — married 13 Jun 1895 in Pimlico, London, England

Descendants

Died 16 Sep 1940 at age 80 in Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom

Preceded by Field Marshall Sir Henry Wylie Norman GCB GCMG CIE

8th Governor of Queensland 9th April 1896 to 19th December 1901

Succeeded by Lieutenant General Sir Herbert Chermside GCMG CB

Biography

Charles (Cochrane-Baillie) Cochrane-Baillie IInd Baron Lamington GCMG GCIE is Notable.

Charles Cochrane-Baillie was a member of the aristocracy in British Isles.

Lord Charles Cochrane-Baillie GCMG GCIE, 2nd Baron Lamington, was a British politician and colonial administrator who was Governor of Queensland and Governor of Bombay.

Charles Wallace Alexander Napier Cochrane-Baillie was born in London, England, on 29th July 1860. He was the only son of Alexander Baillie-Cochrane, a British politician, and his wife Annabella Drummond.^[1] His sisters were Constance Wyatt, Countess de la Warr and Violet Dundas, Viscountess Melville. Charles was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1883. His father had been granted a peerage in 1880, entering the House of Lords as Baron Lamington, of Lamington in the County of Lanark.^[2]

On 13th June 1895 in St Michael's Church, Pimlico, Lord Lamington married Mary Hozier, the youngest daughter of William Hozier, 1st Baron Newlands.^[3]

The Honourable Charles Cochrane-Baillie had two children, both born in Brisbane, Queensland:

1. Victor Cochrane-Baillie MC (1896-1951), godson of Queen Victoria and in 1940 became the 3rd Baron Lamington)
2. Grisell Cochrane-Baillie (1898-1985); married Captain Edward Hastings CBE RN

parliamentary career

In 1885, Charles became assistant private secretary to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Lord Salisbury. Whetting his appetite for parliament, he was elected to represent the borough constituency of St Pancras North in July 1886, taking his seat in the British House of Commons for the Conservative Party. He had not turned thirty years of age when, in February 1890, he succeeded to the title of Lord Lamington upon his father's death, and duly moved across to take his seat in the House of Lords. That same year, the British Government sent Lord Lamington to travel between Tonkin in Vietnam and Siam, with a view to annexing at least the Xishuangbanna district and possibly the whole Yunnan province of China in an attempt to limit French colonisation of the area.^[4]

vice-regal career

In October 1895, at just 35 years of age, Lord Lamington was named as the next Governor of Queensland, a position he held from 9th April 1896 to 19th December 1901, during the Federation period in Australia. Being a very politically conservative governor, Lamington expressed a concern that the federation of the Commonwealth of Australia would lead to unrestrained socialism. He worked with the Premier of Queensland, Sir Samuel Griffith, to ensure that the role of state governors was not diminished after federation. During this time, he was created Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG).