Australian Dictionary of Biography

  • Tip: searches only the name field
  • Tip: Use double quotes to search for a phrase

Cultural Advice

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this website contains names, images, and voices of deceased persons.

In addition, some articles contain terms or views that were acceptable within mainstream Australian culture in the period in which they were written, but may no longer be considered appropriate.

These articles do not necessarily reflect the views of The Australian National University.

Older articles are being reviewed with a view to bringing them into line with contemporary values but the original text will remain available for historical context.

Sir Francis Alexander Newdigate Newdegate (1862–1936)

by C. Coggin and T. Reynolds

This article was published:

Francis Alexander Newdigate Newdegate (1862-1936), by unknown photographer, 1910s

Francis Alexander Newdigate Newdegate (1862-1936), by unknown photographer, 1910s

Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, State Library of Tasmania, AUTAS001125882878

Sir Francis Alexander Newdigate Newdegate (1862-1936), governor, was born on 31 December 1862 at Chelsea, London, only son of Lieutenant-Colonel Francis William Newdigate and his first wife Charlotte Elizabeth Agnes Sophia, née Woodford. He took the surname of Newdegate in 1902 in the terms of his uncle's will. Educated at Eton and at Leipzig and Hanover, Germany, then the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, he was commissioned in the Grenadier Guards in 1883 and travelled in India and the colonies, including Australia, in 1885-87. On 13 October 1888, in St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge, London, he married the Hon. Elizabeth Sophia Lucia Bagot.

A Conservative member of the House of Commons for Nuneaton in 1892-1906, and Tamworth in 1909-17, Newdegate was appointed K.C.M.G. in 1917 and G.C.M.G. in 1925. He became governor of Tasmania on 30 March 1917. He found Tasmanians parochial, but soon identified with them and enjoyed a successful and politically uneventful term of office. He and his wife supported service organizations' war work.

In February 1920 he arrived in Western Australia to succeed Sir William Grey Ellison Macartney as governor. Until he was sworn in on 9 April, Newdegate was in the unusual position of acting as administrator under the lieutenant-governor, Sir Edward Stone. Newdegate's term as governor was again calm. He travelled widely and supported the group settlement scheme initiated by Premier Sir James Mitchell. Newdegate launched the North-West air mail service, being a passenger on its first flight. He welcomed the Prince of Wales on his visit in 1920 and published an enthusiastic paper on Western Australia's potential in the Empire Review (London) in 1925. From 1921 Newdegate had been honorary colonel of the 11th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force.

A keen sportsman and art collector, he was respected, and worked well with various premiers. In 1921 he reacted rashly to Archbishop Clune's speeches about 'British tyranny' in Ireland. Newdegate feared Clune's influence with Roman Catholics; he sent a secret cipher telegram, which he had shown to the premier, to the secretary of state for the colonies, alleging that Clune had been 'traducing the British Government', and suggesting that the Pope be induced to detain him in Rome or that he be prevented from landing in Perth. The secretary of state thought that Newdegate had gone 'somewhat out of his way', and advised him that it was a Commonwealth matter.

On 16 June 1924 Newdegate left Western Australia for home and his estates. Survived by his wife and two daughters, he died on 2 January 1936 at Arbury Hall, Nuneaton, Warwickshire. In World War I there had been an Australian hospital at Harefield Park, Uxbridge, owned by Newdegate. He had paid for the cost of burying soldiers in the village churchyard, gave additional land as it was required, and erected a memorial obelisk in the Australian plot. He was buried there himself. The town of Newdegate in south-west Western Australia commemorates him.

Select Bibliography

  • Great Britain: Colonial Office List, 1935
  • Sydney Morning Herald, 24 Jan 1916, 2 Nov 1921
  • Tasmanian Mail, 15 Feb 1917, 12 Feb 1920
  • West Australian, 21 Jan, 16 Feb 1920, 18 Dec 1922, 18 Apr, 16 June 1924, 4 Jan 1936
  • Kalgoorlie Miner, 14 Feb 1920
  • Sunday Times, 15 June 1924
  • Australasian (Melbourne), 11 Jan 1936
  • Times (London), 3, 4 Jan 1936
  • Sir F. A. N. Newdegate's personal scrapbooks, 1920-24 (State Library of Western Australia)
  • Governor's office, correspondence (State Records Office of Western Australia)
  • Western Australia Premier's Dept, file 90/20 (State Records Office of Western Australia)
  • CO 537/1148-50 (microfilm, National Library of Australia).

Citation details

C. Coggin and T. Reynolds, 'Newdegate, Sir Francis Alexander Newdigate (1862–1936)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/newdegate-sir-francis-alexander-newdigate-7824/text13581, published first in hardcopy 1988, accessed online 5 October 2024.

This article was published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 11, (Melbourne University Press), 1988

View the front pages for Volume 11

© Copyright Australian Dictionary of Biography, 2006-2024

Francis Alexander Newdigate Newdegate (1862-1936), by unknown photographer, 1910s

Francis Alexander Newdigate Newdegate (1862-1936), by unknown photographer, 1910s

Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, State Library of Tasmania, AUTAS001125882878

Life Summary [details]

Alternative Names
  • Newdigate, Francis Alexander
Birth

31 December, 1862
London, Middlesex, England

Death

2 January, 1936 (aged 73)
Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England

Cultural Heritage

Includes subject's nationality; their parents' nationality; the countries in which they spent a significant part of their childhood, and their self-identity.

Occupation