Edward John Eyre

In October 1854 Eyre was appointed lieutenant-governor of the island of St Vincent, where he encountered a very different situation from that in Australia or New Zealand. St Vincent had suffered serious economic difficulties in the wake of emancipation and the loss of the protective sugar duties in the British market. In addition, Eyre believed, the political institutions of the island were unwieldy. Instead of the two-chamber legislature consisting of an elected house of assembly and a nominated council, he recommended a single legislative chamber. But he faced some of the same difficulties he had experienced in New Zealand: he failed to make sufficient personal contact with the colonists. His shyness was not helped by his wife, whose health suffered badly in the tropical climate of St Vincent, but who also adopted unduly grand airs for a lieutenant-governor's wife. In 1857, when the couple visited England on leave, his wife remained there and did not return to St Vincent with her husband. During his remaining time alone in St Vincent, Eyre wrote an Autobiographical Narrative, published in 1984, about his early years in Australia.
Top Image courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery.

St Vincent | Administrators