Sir Walter Joseph Sendall GCMG

Walter Joseph Sendall was born on 24 Dec 1832 at Langham Hall, Suffolk, the son of a vicar. He studied at Cambridge and joined the Colonial Service. His first posting was Ceylon in 1860 where he was an inspector of schools. By 1870 he was Director of Public Instruction. His health was suffering in the climate so he resigned and returned to the UK in 1872.
He worked in the Oxford district as a poor law inspector in 1873 and then moved to Yorkshire. He returned to work in the colonies in 1882, hoping for a job in Natal, but that was refused. In 1885 he was appointed Governor-in-Chief of the Windward Islands which had separated from Barbados. He lived on the island of Grenada and organised the new administration. In 1889 he was Governor of Barbados.
In 1892 he was appointed High Commissioner of Cyprus where he apparently was more sympathetic to the population than was usual for holders of that post. In 1898 he was appointed Governor of British Guiana until 1 Aug 1901.
The DNB says that he ’..appeared to lack quickness of sympathy and personal geniality, but his sound judgment and high character won him unqualified esteem and confidence in his capacity of governor.’ He was knighted as GCMG in 1899 and in retirement spent much of his time with his microscope and lathe. He was a member of the Royal Microscopical Society, also the Hellenic Society.
He was married in 1870 to Elizabeth Sophia Calverley, daughter of a vicar, and sister of the poet Charles Stuart Calverley. They had no children. He died in Kensington on 16 March 1904. The bust of Sir Walter is by Edouard Lanteri. It shows him wearing his Governor’s uniform with the cloak and collar of the Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George.

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