Henry Stafford Northcote, 1st Baron Northcote, GCMG, GCIE, CB, PC (18 November 1846 – 29 September 1911), the 3rd Governor-General of Australia, was born in London, the second son of the prominent Conservative politician Sir Stafford Northcote, later 1st Earl of Iddesleigh. He was educated at Eton and Merton College, Oxford (B.A. 1869; M.A. 1873), and had joined the Foreign Office as a diplomat.
In 1880 Northcote was elected to the House of Commo...
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Henry Stafford Northcote, 1st Baron Northcote, GCMG, GCIE, CB, PC (18 November 1846 – 29 September 1911), the 3rd Governor-General of Australia, was born in London, the second son of the prominent Conservative politician Sir Stafford Northcote, later 1st Earl of Iddesleigh. He was educated at Eton and Merton College, Oxford (B.A. 1869; M.A. 1873), and had joined the Foreign Office as a diplomat.
In 1880 Northcote was elected to the House of Commons as MP for Exeter, where he served until 1899, holding junior office in the Conservative government of Lord Salisbury. In that year he was appointed Governor of Bombay. Since as a second son he had not inherited his father's title, he was given his own peerage, and was thereafter known as Lord Northcote. He was still in this post when the Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain, offered him the post of Governor-General of Australia in 1903.
The first two Governors-General, Lord Hopetoun and Lord Tennyson, had served shortened terms and had...
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