Lieutenant-General Sir Herbert Charles Chermside, (31 July 1850 – 24 September 1929) was a British Army officer who served as Governor of Queensland from 1902 to 1904.
Early life and education
Chermside was born in the town of Wilton in Wiltshire on 31 July 1850. His parents were Rev. Richard Seymour Conway Chermside, rector of Wilton and son of Sir Robert Alexander Chermside, and Emily Dawson. He was a scholar at Eton College and then attended the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, where he graduated at the top of his year and was commissioned in the Royal Engineers in 1870.
Military career
In 1871, Chermside and several other officers visited Paris during the Paris Commune, and were accused of supporting the Communards, narrowly escaping execution. After a posting in Ireland, he joined Benjamin Leigh Smith's expedition to the Arctic in 1873.
In 1876, Chermside was sent to Ottoman Turkey to work with the Turkish forces after Serbia and Montenegro declared war on the country in July. He was working as a military attaché to Turkey in 1877, when Russia also declared war. After six months with the Turkish boundary commission, he was appointed Military Vice Consul to Anatolia in July 1879. He was back in the United Kingdom to take up command of the Curragh Camp in Ireland from January 1901. In January the following year he was, however, appointed the first post-Federation Governor of Queensland. He arrived in Brisbane on 24 March 1902 to find Queensland in the grip of a drought and economic recession. He immediately volunteered to forgo 15 per cent of his vice-regal salary, and his sacrifice and approachable nature made him a popular figure amongst the Queensland public. However, concerned by the parliamentary attitude to the role of governor, Chermside decided to resign in 1904, although he delayed the announcement until a political crisis had been dealt with by granting a dissolution of parliament to Premier Sir Arthur Morgan after several failed attempts to establish a stable government. Once he had opened the new parliament, Chermside announced his retirement and left Queensland on 8 October on pre-retirement leave. and she childless died in 1910. He remarried in 1920 to Clementine Maria Reuter (daughter of Paul Reuter), and there were no children of the marriage.
He died in London, aged 79, on 24 September 1929.
Honours and legacy
Chermside was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1886. He was also made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1880, upgraded to Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1897, and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1899.