LATE LORD CARMICHAEL

Evening Star, Issue 20328, 9 November 1929, Page 15

LATE LORD CARMICHAEL

PUBLICATION OF MEMOIR SERVICES TO THE STATE LONDON, November 7. Lady Carmichael’s memoir of the late Lord Carmichael, formerly Governor of Victoria,'Madras,' and Bengal, ■was published to-day. It includes a chapter on , Lord Carmichael’s services in home politics by. Lady Novar, wife of Viscount Novar. formerly GovernorGeneral of Australia. Sir David Masson, formerly Professor of Chemistry at Melbourne University, contributes a detailed account of Lord Carmichael’s term of office as Governor of Victoria. . , The memoir narrates his youthful friendship with Mr Robert Bridges, the Poet Laureate, who was best man at Lord Carmichael’s wedding. 1 ncidentally it recalls that the first political meeting which Lord Carmichael ever attended was one held during Mr Gladstone’s Midlothian Campaign in 1879, at which, as he found years later, the late' Prime Minister of Australia, Mr Andrew Fisher, was also present. A long passage is devoted to the political crisis that arose four months after Lord Carmichael’s arrival at Melbourne in 1908,. when on a vote ol no-confidenco the Bent Government was defeated, and Lord Carmichael granted a dissolution. Sir David says that in his opinion it is beyond dispute that the Governor followed the best constitutional practice, and had no responsibility for what followed. The public and the Press quickly came to the view that the Governor’s decision was probably right, or, if not, that the blame was the Premier’s, who on certain points misled the Governor. A tribute is paid to Lady Carmichael’s work for the Victoria League, Hie kindergarten movement, and ■ the Arts and Crafts Society. After a description of Lord Carmichael’s work in Madras the interesting volume concludes with a chapter writteu by Mr John Buchan, M.P., entitled ‘The Last Years,’ and-a record of Lord Carmichael’s services to art as a trustee of the National Gallery, the Wallace collection, and as an art collector.

The late Baron Carmichael of Skirling, County of Peebles, was Thomas David Gibson-Carmichael. Ho was the eldest son of the Rev. Sir William Gibson-Carmichael, the 10th Barouet, and succeeded to the baronetcy in 1891 at the age of thirty-two. He was at St. John’s College, Cambridge. He married in 1886 Miss Mary Helen Elizabeth Nugent. He was a member, of'the House of Commons for Midlothian, 1895-1900; chairman of the National Galleries of • Scotland, 1907-8, and of the English Galleries. He was Governor of Victoria, 1908-11, of Madras, 1911-12, and of Bengal, 1912-17. Sir David Masson, of Melbourne, has been Professor Emeritus since 1924. He is a distinguished chemist, _ and' has been president of the Australian Chemical Institute and the National Research Council.