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{{Similar names|George Arthur (disambiguation)}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2011}}
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{{Infobox officeholder
|honorific-prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
|name = Sir George Arthur
|honorific-suffix = {{postnom|country=GBR|size=100%|Bt|KCH}}
|image = Major-General Sir George Arthur (cropped).jpg
|order = [[Superintendent of British Honduras]]
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|successor4 = [[Lestock Robert Reid]]
|birth_date = {{birth date|1784|06|21|df=y}}
|birth_place = [[Plymouth
|death_date = {{death date and age|1854|09|19|1784|06|21|df=y}}
|death_place = [[London
|spouse = Eliza Orde Usher Smith
}}
'''Sir George Arthur, 1st Baronet''' {{postnom|country=GBR|KCH}} (21 June 1784 – 19 September 1854) was [[Lieutenant Governor]] of [[British Honduras]] from 1814 to 1822
==Early life==
George Arthur was born in [[Plymouth]], England. He was the youngest son of John Arthur, from a [[Cornish people|Cornish]] family,<ref>{{cite
==Family==
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==Honduras==
In 1814 he was appointed lieutenant governor of [[British Honduras]], holding at the same time the rank of [[colonel]] on the staff, thus exercising the military command as well as the civil government
Arthur fell out with Honduran landowners over the local system of democratically elected magistrates. Pointing out its iniquity, he reported cases of maltreatment of women in slavery that went unpunished. In an 1823 [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|Commons]] debate, [[Abolitionism in the United Kingdom|abolitionists]] cited Arthur's 1816 letters describing the maltreatment. However, Arthur had also stated in an 1816 article that, apart from those few cases he had reported, in no part of the world had he seen "the labouring class of people possess anything like the comforts and advantages of the Slave population of Honduras". Despite opponents mocking Arthur's contradictory position, [[William Wilberforce]]'s resolution prevailed and flogging of women in slavery was banned. With this collaboration and success came Wilberforce's patronage which was key to Arthur's next promotion.<ref>{{cite book |volume=1: Introduction |first=Nicholas |last=Russell |date=1 June 2022 |title=Manuscripts relating to the January 1830 samurai repulse of the piratically seized Van Diemen's Land colonial brig ''Cyprus'' from Mugi, Awa Province (Tokushima), Japan |url=https://piratesandsamurai.com/1.Introduction.pdf |pages=68–70 |access-date=3 March 2022 |publisher=Nicholas Russell |location=Ashiya, Japan |via=Pirates and Samurai}}{{self-published inline|date=June 2023}}</ref>
==Van Diemen's Land==
[[File:Gov Davey's proclamation.jpg|thumb|left|Proclamation board incorrectly labelled "[[Governor Davey's Proclamation]], 1816", depicting Governor Arthur's proclamation
In 1823 he was appointed lieutenant governor of [[Van Diemen's Land]] (later known as Tasmania). He arrived on the ship {{ship||Adrian|1819 ship|2}} with his wife and family on 12 May 1824 and took office on 14 May. At the time Van Diemen's Land was the main British [[penal colony]] and it was separated from New South Wales in 1825. It was during Arthur's time in office that Van Diemen's Land gained much of its notorious reputation as a harsh penal colony. He selected [[Port Arthur, Tasmania|Port Arthur]] as the ideal location for a prison settlement, on a [[peninsula]] connected by a narrow, easily guarded [[isthmus]], surrounded by shark-infested seas. Arthur's predecessors had executed no one in Tasmania as capital punishment was carried out in Sydney. George Arthur executed 260 people in his term of office (some bodies were left hanging for months).<ref>{{Cite book|title = Van Diemen's Land|last = Boyce|first = James|publisher = Black Inc.|year = 2008|isbn =
As lieutenant governor, George Arthur is responsible for the repression and persecution of the [[Tasmanian Aborigine|Aboriginal]] population in the conflict known as the [[Black War]]. Throughout the 1820s Arthur had instituted various measures to protect settlers from Aboriginal attacks, including the stationing of garrison troops in remote farmhouses and the dispatch of combined military and police teams into the wilderness to track
Arthur's initial brief had stated, "when such disturbances cannot be prevented or allayed by less vigorous measures, to oppose force by force, and to repel such Aggressions in the same manner, as if they proceeded from subjects of any accredited State." However, on 17 April 1828 in an official dispatch, Arthur described Aboriginal combatants as "Savages", a nomenclature that placed them outside the conventions of European warfare.<ref>{{cite book |volume=1: Introduction |first=Nicholas |last=Russell |date=1 June 2022 |title=Manuscripts relating to the January 1830 samurai repulse of the piratically seized Van Diemen's Land colonial brig ''Cyprus'' from Mugi, Awa Province (Tokushima), Japan |url=https://piratesandsamurai.com/1.Introduction.pdf |pages=45–47 |access-date=3 March 2022 |publisher=Nicholas Russell |location=Ashiya, Japan |via=Pirates and Samurai}}{{self-published inline|date=June 2023}}</ref>
In February 1830 Arthur sought public input on alternative measures to end the fighting; suggestions included a system of rewards for captured Aborigines, and the importation of packs of hunting dogs to "set [on] the natives as they would a quail." Arthur himself expressed regret that a treaty was not signed with Aborigines when the colony was established. In its absence, and given the increasing attacks on both sides, on 27 August 1830 Arthur obtained Executive Council approval for a declaration of martial law.<ref name=Connor/>
The centrepiece of Arthur's military efforts would be the [[Black Line]] fiasco, which was intended to drive the Aborigines from the colony's grazing land onto isolated peninsulas where they could be controlled. At the beginning of the Black War in 1826 Arthur issued an official statement setting out those situations that would justify settlers using violence: 'If it should be apparent that there is a determination on the part of one or more of the native tribes to attack, rob, or murder the white inhabitants generally, any person may arm, and joining themselves to the military, drive them by force to a safe distance, treating them as open enemies.<ref>{{Cite book|title = The Forgotten War|last = Reynolds|first = Henry|publisher = UNSW Australia|year = 2013|isbn =
In 1833, Arthur wrote to his line superior, [[Secretary of State for War and the Colonies]] [[F. J. Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich|Viscount Goderich]], "I am willing to make almost any prudent sacrifice that may tend to compensate for the injuries that the government is unwillingly and unavoidably made the instrument of inflicting." However, Arthur was a fastidious administrator who once wrote to his son "As to chance and good luck I know of nothing more absurd". "All happens under the direction of providence of the Almighty who works by human agency". To the first Aboriginal Establishment (internment camp) on Bruny Island, Arthur initially sent used blankets without any instruction to laund them and a syphilitic assistant overseer. When mortality there skyrocketed, Arthur became concerned. However, his concern appears to have been for the perception of his Abolitionist patrons and the home government regarding deaths of women and children in custody rather than for the tragedy of the [[Aboriginal Tasmanians|Aboriginal Tasmanians']] lives lost. Arthur obfuscated the mortality and distanced himself by setting up a committee. At the Aboriginal Establishment's subsequent locations, the litany of pernicious mortality-driving failings continued while Arthur, the Committee and the overseers ignore the everyday prophylactic protocols implemented on [[Penal transportation|convict transports]], in prisons and barracks. The failings are in every aspect remarkably reminiscent of the contagion-driving factors documented in an 1811 Parliamentary Paper on the 1809 [[Walcheren Campaign|Walcheren Debacle]] that Arthur most probably read. A split command hobbled the expeditionary force which became figuratively and literally bogged down. Lacking necessary supplies, accommodation and medical care, mortality due to contagion rose to 10%. Arthur served and fell ill at Walcheren. After the evacuation, he become [[Aide-de-camp]] and close friend to [[George Don (British Army officer)|General George Don]] who had initially reconnoitered Walcheren and was then brought in to organize the evacuation. The Parliamentary Paper cited around 50 of Don's dispatches. At its various subsequent locations, the Aboriginal Establishment's mortality rate averaged just over 10%, while every other institution under Arthur was a paragon of well-managed efficiency with mortality rates below England's average of 1.9%.
▲As lieutenant governor, George Arthur is responsible for the repression and persecution of the [[Tasmanian Aborigine|Aboriginal]] population in the conflict known as the [[Black War]]. Throughout the 1820s Arthur had instituted various measures to protect settlers from Aboriginal attacks, including the stationing of garrison troops in remote farmhouses and the dispatch of combined military and police teams into the wilderness to track indigenous bands.<ref name=Connor>{{cite book|last=Connor|first=John|title=The Australian Frontier Wars 1788{{ndash}}1838|publisher=University of New South Wales Press|year=2002|pages=93–95|isbn=0868407569}}</ref> These proved ineffective, and by 1830 the conflict between Aborigines and settlers had increased. In February 1830 Arthur sought public input on alternative measures to end the fighting; suggestions included a system of rewards for captured Aborigines, and the importation of packs of hunting dogs to "set [on] the natives as they would a quail." Arthur himself expressed regret that a treaty was not signed with Aborigines when the colony was established. In its absence, and given the increasing attacks on both side, on 27 August 1830 Arthur obtained Executive Council approval for a declaration of martial law.<ref name=Connor/>
A ''Sydney Monitor'' editorial on his recall stated, "[Arthur] gave plausible replies, while he smiled in secret, knowing that those smiles would be communicated to his satraps and underlings, and that they would increase rather than mitigate this undercurrent of tyranny against the opposers of his government." The improbable level of failures and this description of his character point to Arthur obfuscating an orchestrated diminution which is consistent with a caution Arthur had received from Goderich's predecessor, [[George Murray (British Army officer)|Sir George Murray]], in 1830. Murray – an expert in military intelligence analysis who had served as a lieutenant-governor – wrote, "the adoption of any line of conduct, having for its avowed, or for its secret object, the extinction of the Native race, could not fail to leave an indelible stain upon the character of the British Government."<ref>{{cite book |volume=1: Introduction |first=Nicholas |last=Russell |date=1 June 2022 |title=Manuscripts relating to the January 1830 samurai repulse of the piratically seized Van Diemen's Land colonial brig ''Cyprus'' from Mugi, Awa Province (Tokushima), Japan |url=https://piratesandsamurai.com/1.Introduction.pdf |pages=91–92, 111–118, 136–146 |access-date=3 March 2022 |publisher=Nicholas Russell |location=Ashiya, Japan |via=Pirates and Samurai}}{{self-published inline|date=June 2023}}</ref>
▲The centrepiece of Arthur's military efforts would be the [[Black Line]] fiasco, which was intended to drive the Aborigines from the colony's grazing land onto isolated peninsulas where they could be controlled. At the beginning of the Black War in 1826 Arthur issued an official statement setting out those situations that would justify settlers using violence: 'If it should be apparent that there is a determination on the part of one or more of the native tribes to attack, rob, or murder the white inhabitants generally, any person may arm, and joining themselves to the military, drive them by force to a safe distance, treating them as open enemies.<ref>{{Cite book|title = The Forgotten War|last = Reynolds|first = Henry|publisher = UNSW Australia|year = 2013|isbn = 9781742233925|page = 63}}</ref>
==Canada==
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He was appointed provisional governor-general, but did not assume office, as he was compelled by ill health to leave India before [[Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge|Lord Hardinge]] vacated the governor-generalship.
Sir George Arthur, during his administration of the affairs of the presidency, perfected the [[Deccan survey]], the object of which was to equalise and decrease the pressure of the land assessment on the cultivators of the [[Deccan]]; and gave his hearty support to the project of a railway line from Bombay to [[Kalyan|Cailian]], which may be regarded as the germ of the [[Great Indian Peninsular Railway]], while during his administration the reclamation of the foreshore of the island of Bombay was projected. During his tenure, he inaugurated the famous '[[Grant Medical College and Sir Jamshedjee Jeejeebhoy Group of Hospitals|Grant Medical College]]' in Bombay (1845 AD) one of the first three Medical Colleges in India teaching the western medical sciences. The other two being, the Medical College, Bengal (1835 AD) and [[Madras Medical College]] (Formerly Madras Medical School in 1835 and later, Madras Medical College in 1850 AD). The hospital for the Grant Medical College, the Jamshedji Jijiboy Hospital was constructed by the Parsee Trust beforehand.
==Final years==
On his return to England in 1846, he was made a [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|privy councillor]], and in 1853 he received the colonelcy of the [[50th (Queen's Own) Regiment of Foot]]. He was promoted to [[lieutenant-general]] in 1854 and died that September.
==Legacy==
Famous [[Arthur Road Jail]] in Mumbai is named after Arthur Road which was named after [[Sir George Arthur]], [[Governor of Bombay]]
Arthur's time in Tasmania was dramatised in the 1945 radio play ''[[Conflict in Van Diemen's Land]]''.
{{Infobox COA wide
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==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}
==Sources==
*{{Dictionary of Australian Biography|First=George|Last=Arthur|shortlink=0-dict-biogA.html#arthur1}}
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* [http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Belize.html World Statesmen – Belize]
* {{UK National Archives ID}}
{{s-start}}
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{{ONLG}}
{{Governors of Tasmania}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arthur, Sir George Arthur, 1st Baronet}}
[[Category:1784 births]]
[[Category:1854 deaths]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Plymouth, Devon]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars]]
[[Category:Governors of Tasmania]]
[[Category:Lieutenant-Governors of Upper Canada]]
[[Category:British Army lieutenant generals]]
[[Category:Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:People from Plymouth, Devon]]
[[Category:Governors of Bombay]]
[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]]
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