John Campbell Longstaff (1861-1941), Henry William Forster (detail), Historic Memorials Collection, Parliament House Art Collection. View full image
1st Baron Forster
Governor-General, 6 October 1920 to 8 October 1925
Sportsman and politician, Henry William Forster (1867-1932) became Governor-General as Australia grappled with the impact of World War I. Conscious of his unifying role, he carried out his public duties with zeal, leading Prime Minister William ‘Billy’ Hughes to declare that the vice-regal couple had won ‘their way into the hearts of the people through their active and civic minded approach’.1
Born in Kent, England, Forster studied at Eton and Oxford. He represented Eton, Oxford and Kent in cricket and later became president of Marylebone Cricket Club (1919). In 1890, he married Rachel Cecily Douglas-Scott-Montagu; they had four children. Forster was elected as a Unionist member of the House of Commons in 1892, serving until 1919. He was Lord Commissioner of the Treasury (1902-05), Conservative Whip (1902-11), and Financial Secretary to the War Office (1915-19).2 Forster was appointed to the Privy Council in 1917 and made Baron Forster of Lepe in 1919.3
In a break from convention, Forster’s name was presented to the Australian Government as one of three suitable successors to Governor-General Sir Ronald Munro Ferguson.4 The Hughes Cabinet selected Forster, who accepted the appointment on the ‘assurance it would be for two years only and that a special allowance would be provided by the British Government’.5 Despite this, he would go on to serve a full five-year term. The Brisbane Courier observed that the appointment was ‘likely to give widespread satisfaction’ and that Forster’s sporting credentials ‘should give him a hallmark of popularity in Australia, where sport enters so largely into the national life’.6
After the war, Dominion governments took an increasingly direct role in external affairs, leaving ‘social leadership of the community’ as one of the Governor-General’s primary roles, one which Forster actively embraced.7 The vice-regal couple travelled extensively, covering 32,000 kms in the first year, leading him to describe the role of the Governor-General as ‘just like the work of looking after a big constituency’.8 With the experience of having two of their own sons killed in World War I, the Forsters were active in dedicating war memorials across the nation. Forster served as Chief Scout, a role since held by all Governors- General, and established the NSW branch of Dr Barnardo’s Homes for Boys. Lady Forster served as president of the Red Cross Society and patron of the National Council of Women, among other community work.
Having served as Governor-General for almost five years, Forster left Australia in October 1925. Later in life, he promoted migration to Australia, and directed several financial companies with Australian connections. He died in London on 15 January 1936.
Sir John Campbell Longstaff
Born in Clunes, Victoria, John Longstaff (1861-1941) was an Australian portraitist, war artist and five-time winner of the Archibald Prize (1925-35). Longstaff studied at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School alongside Emanuel Phillips Fox, Tudor St George Tucker, Tom Humphrey, John Mather and Frederick McCubbin. Awarded the School’s first travelling scholarship in 1887, he travelled to Europe, settling in Paris and later in Spain. Throughout the early 1890s Longstaff exhibited successfully and in 1893 moved to London where he worked as a fashionable portrait painter, regularly exhibiting at the Royal Academy and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. During 1918-20 Longstaff was an official war artist with the AIF. Returning to Australia in 1920, he later held several official positions including president of the Victorian Artists’ Society, the Australian Art Association, the Australian Academy of Art, and a trustee of the Public Library, Museums and National Gallery in Victoria. In 1928 Longstaff became the first Australian artist to be knighted. His work is represented in major state and regional galleries across Australia.
9
Henry William Forster
by John Campbell Longstaff
1925
Oil on canvas
146.5 x 98 cm
Historic Memorials Collection, Parliament House Art Collection
References
1. Quoted in C Cunneen, King’s Men: Australia’s Governors- General from Hopetoun to Isaacs, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1983, p. 161.
2. ‘Hansard 1803–2005: People: Mr Henry Forster’, Gov.uk, accessed 30 August 2021.
3. C Cunneen, ‘Sir Henry William Forster’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1981, accessed 30 August 2021.
4. The other two names were General JEB Seely, later Baron Mottistone (Secretary of State for War in the Asquith Cabinet), and RWJ Hely-Hutchinson, 6th Earl of Donoughmore (Under Secretary of State for War 1903–05 and longstanding Chairman of Committee in the Lords). See R Fulford and M Pottle, ‘Seely, John Edward Bernard, first Baron Mottistone (1868– 1947)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; M Brodie, ‘Hutchinson, Richard Walter John Hely-Hutchinson, sixth earl of Donoughmore (1875–1948)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; C Cunneen, ‘The role of Governor-General in Australia 1901–1927’, PhD thesis, ANU, 1973, pp. 457–59. Websites accessed 30 August 2021.
5. Ibid., p. 459.
6. ‘The New Governor-General’, The Brisbane Courier, 16 June 1920, p. 6, accessed 30 August 2021.
7. Cunneen, King’s Men, op. cit., p. 154.
8. Ibid., p. 163.
9. Information in this biography has been taken from: L Astbury, ‘Longstaff, Sir John Campbell (1861–1941)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1986; K Robertson, ‘Sir John Longstaff’, Design & Art Australia Online, 2011; ‘Longstaff, (Sir) John Campbell’, A McCulloch, S McCulloch and E McCulloch Childs, eds, The New McCulloch’s Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Aus Art Editions in association with The Miegunyah Press, 2006, p. 625. Websites accessed 25 March 2021.