Bannerman, Sir Alexander

Alexander Bannerman (1788-1864), merchant, politician and Governor of Newfoundland (1857-64), was born on 7 October 1788 in Aberdeen, Scotland, son of Thomas Bannerman, a prominent wine merchant. He married Margaret Gordon of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island on 14 January 1825. They had no children. Bannerman was knighted in February 1851. He died 30 December 1864 in London, England.

Bannerman was educated at the Marischal College grammar school in Aberdeen before assuming control the family wine business with his younger brother Thomas (1820) after the death of their father. He also invested in a number of other businesses, including banking and whaling, as well as cotton mills and iron foundries. Well-known in Aberdeen, Bannerman became involved in politics, and was subsequently acclaimed as a Whig member for the city in the reformed House of Commons in 1832, where he sat until his retirement in 1847.

In 1850 Britain appointed Bannerman as Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island (1850-54) to implement responsible government. Identified as a Reform partisan, Bannerman became embroiled in island politics and was transferred by the Colonial Office to the Bahamas where he served as Governor until 1857. In mid-1857, Bannerman was selected as Governor of Newfoundland where responsible government had been achieved only two years earlier (1855).

In Newfoundland Bannerman asserted the prerogative of the governor as the Crown's representative to overrule decisions of the Executive Council, declaring that he was "by no means obliged to follow their advice if he considers it to be wrong." Following the resignation of the first Prime Minister Philip Francis Little (1858), Bannerman clashed repeatedly with his successor, the radical Liberal John Kent, over French fishing rights on the western shore of Newfoundland, the use of government funds and relief monies for fishermen, and the dismissal of government officials.

In 1861 Bannerman dissolved the Kent administration, a move observed with some alarm by the British government, and invited the Conservative leader, Hugh William Hoyles, to establish a new government, thus provoking the constitutional crisis of 1861. The Hoyles government was quickly defeated by a non-confidence motion; in the ensuing election there was much sectarian bitterness, and outbreaks of violence at Carbonear, Harbour Grace, St. John's, and Harbour Main. A petition from 8,000 Catholics denouncing Bannerman was sent to the Colonial Office. Bannerman was more temperate in the exercise of his prerogative powers during the Hoyles administration. He retired in September 1864 and died four months later in London.

Created - May 13, 2013

• English