Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Gordon, Arthur Charles Hamilton-
GORDON, ARTHUR CHARLES HAMILTON-, first Baron Stanmore (1829–1912), colonial governor, was born at Argyll House, London, 26 November 1829. He was the youngest son of George Hamilton-Gordon, fourth Earl of Aberdeen [q.v.], by his second wife, Harriet, daughter of the Hon. John Douglas, widow of James, Viscount Hamilton, and mother of the first Duke of Abercorn. He matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1847, and graduated M.A. in 1851. In the following year he became private secretary to his father, who was prime minister from 1852 to 1855, and with whom he always remained on terms of special intimacy and affection. From 1854 to 1857 he sat in the House of Commons as liberal member for Beverley. In 1858 he accompanied Mr. Gladstone, in the capacity of private secretary, on his visit to the Ionian Islands as lord high commissioner extraordinary.
Gordon’s work as a colonial administrator, which was to extend over a period of nearly thirty years, began in 1861 with his appointment as lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick. Some account of his impressions of that country is to be found in Wilderness Journeys in New Brunswick, which he contributed to the volume edited by (Sir) Francis Galton, entitled Vacation Tourists and Notes of Travel in 1862–1863, published in 1864. In 1866 he became governor of Trinidad, where he remained until 1870; here he acted as host to Charles Kingsley during the latter’s visit to the West Indies, described in At Last. From 1871 to 1874 he was governor of Mauritius.
In 1875 Gordon entered upon what was probably the most important period of his career, his governorship of Fiji. The islands were ceded to the British Crown in 1874, and Gordon was appointed the first governor. He had always opposed the doctrine that a superior race may rightfully exploit an inferior one, and had maintained the equal claims of all classes to consideration; and in Fiji he was able to put his theories into practice. His views were unpopular with many of the white settlers, who resented the measures taken for the protection of native institutions, and he was attacked with much bitterness in some quarters. He proved, however, a strong governor, and was largely successful in his efforts to maitain native laws and customs and to uphold the authority of the chiefs. His period of governorship in Fiji, which he himself regarded as the most interesting of his colonial experiences, is described in detail in the four volumes entitled Fiji: Records of Private and of Public Life, 1875–1880, printed for private circulation in 1897. From 1877 to 1883 he also held the office of high commissioner and consul-general for the Western Pacific.
Leaving Fiji in 1880 Gordon became governor of New Zealand, and in 1883 was appointed to Ceylon, where he remained as governor until his retirement in 1890. In both countries he showed firmness in difficult circumstances, whether in his dealings with the Colonial Office or with Iocal ministries.
On his retirement Gordon devoted himself to literary and public work of various kinds. He published in 1893 a short life of his father, The Earl of Aberdeen, based on material collected for a fuller biography which was never published, and in 1906 Sidney Herbert, Lord Herbert of Lea: A Memoir. He also spent much time in collecting and editing the mass of state papers and correspondence left behind by Lord Aberdeen. Besides being chairman of the Bank of Mauritius and of the Pacific Phosphate Company and president of the Ceylon Association, he was an active member of various House of Lords’ committees; he was also a member of the House of Laymen for the province of Canterbury, his views being those of a pronounced high churchman.
Gordon was created C.M.G. in 1859, K.C.M.G. in 1871, and G.C.M.G. in 1878. In 1893 he was raised to the peerage with the title of Baron Stanmore, of Great Stanmore, Middlesex. He was an honorary D.C.L. of Oxford. He married in 1865
Rachel Emily (died 1889), eldest daughter of Sir John George Shaw-Lefevre [q.v.], by whom he had one son and one daughter. He died in London 30 January 1912, and was buried at Ascot, where he had lived for many years. He was succeeded as second baron by his son, George Arthur Maurice Hamilton-Gordon (born 1871).
Stanmore’s work as a colonial administrator was of permanent value. In his dealings with native races, especially in Fiji, he laid down principles which have had a lasting influence; thus the methods used with such success in New Guinea by Sir William MacGregor [q.v.] were probably suggested in part by MacGregor’s experience under Stanmore in Mauritius and in Fiji. Stanmore was actuated by a high sense of duty and was a man of courage, firmness, and integrity; the friend of Charles Kingsley, Samuel Wilberforce, and Roundell Palmer, first Earl of Selborne, he possessed deeply religious convictions as well as great personal charm.
[The Times, 31 January 1912; Lady Frances Balfour, Life of George, fourth Earl of Aberdeen, 1922; Earl of Selborne, Memorials, 4 vols., 1896–1898; Lord Stanmore’s writings above mentioned.]