George Edward Grey

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For other men with a similar name, see George Grey or George Gray

Sir George Edward Grey KCB (April 14 1812 - September 19 1898 ) was a soldier, explorer, Governor of South Australia, twice Governor of New Zealand, Governor of Cape Colony (South Africa), Premier of New Zealand and a writer.

Grey was born in Lisbon, Portugal just a few days after his father, Lieutenant-Colonel Grey of the 30th Foot, was killed at the Battle of Badajoz in Spain. His mother, on the balcony of her hotel in Lisbon, overheard two officers speak of his death, and this brought on his premature birth.

As a young man he led, in 1837, a catastrophically ill-prepared expedition of exploration in North-West Australia based from Cape Town — only one man of his party had ever seen northern Australia before. Wrecked, almost drowned and completely lost, Grey wounded in a skirmish with Aborigines they traced the course of the Glenelg River before giving up and retiring to Mauritius to recover. Two years later Grey returned to Western Australia, and was again wrecked with his party; they discovered the Gascoyne River, but then had to walk to Perth, barely surviving the journey, much of it without food and almost without water (they survived by drinking liquid mud).

He was the third Governor of South Australia from 1841 to 1845. He oversaw the colony during a difficult formative period. Despite being seen as less hands-on than his predecessor George Gawler, his fiscally responsible measures ensured the colony was in good shape by the time he departed for New Zealand.

He was the most influential figure during the European settlement of New Zealand during the second half of the 19th century. Governor of New Zealand initially from 1845 to 1853, Grey was again appointed Governor in 1861 following the granting of a degree of self-governance to New Zealand, serving until 1868 before his nomination as Premier in 1877, in which capacity he served until 1879.

During his second term as governor in the 1860s, Grey launched the Invasion of the Waikato to take control of the rich Maori agricultural region. The war brought many British troops to New Zealand, at one time more than were situated anywhere else in the world.

About Grey in New Zealand: "… he learned the Maori language and persuaded Maori authorities to commit the legends and traditions to writing, some of which were subsequently published…. His collected papers… would turn out to be the largest single repository of Maori-language manuscripts in the world" (From 'The Penguin History of New Zealand', Page 203 - Michael King).

Later, Grey was appointed Governor of Cape Colony, where he founded the prestigious Grey College in Bloemfontein in 1885 and Grey High School in Port Elizabeth in 1886. Both schools are boys only and considered very strong in academics and sporting endeavours.

Grey was created a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1848.

Places named in honour of Grey include Greytown in the Wairarapa region of New Zealand, Greytown, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and the Division of Grey, an Australian Electoral Division in South Australia.

He is buried in St Paul's Cathedral.

See also

History of Adelaide

External links

Preceded by:
Colonel George Gawler 		Governor of South Australia
1841–1845 		Succeeded by:
Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Robe


Preceded by:
Captain Robert FitzRoy 		Governor of New Zealand
First time 1845–1855 		Succeeded by:
Colonel Thomas Gore Browne


Preceded by:
Colonel Thomas Gore Browne 		Governor of New Zealand
Second time 1861–1868 		Succeeded by:
Sir George Ferguson Bowen
 
Prime Minister of New Zealand Image:New zealand coa.png
Preceded by: Harry Atkinson (1877-1879) Succeeded by: John Hall
Sewell | Fox | Stafford | Domett | Whitaker | Weld | Waterhouse | Vogel | Pollen | Atkinson | Grey | Hall | Stout | Ballance | Seddon | Hall-Jones | Ward | Mackenzie | Massey | Bell | Coates | Forbes | Savage | Fraser | Holland | Nash | Holyoake | Marshall | Kirk | Rowling | Muldoon | Lange | Palmer | Moore | Bolger | Shipley | Clark

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