School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses
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ItemAn imperial partnership: the marriage of Henry and Alice Northcote( 2011)This thesis examines the lives of two Victorian era aristocrats, Henry (Harry) Stafford Northcote and Alice Stephen Northcote, who married in 1873, and in 1900 began an eight-year career in colonial government. It reviews in particular their negotiation of the system of imperial power that they represented, first in Bombay (1900-1903) and then in Australia (1904-1908). The combination of attention to biographical specificities and the various social and political contexts of the Northcotes' engagements allows the details of their lives to illuminate issues of wider historical significance. The study encompasses two different biographical challenges: interpreting the various correspondences that make up the main source of information about Harry; and discovering Alice despite a paucity of primary source material. Harry, scion of a minor aristocratic dynasty, first served in British politics what proved to be an apprenticeship for colonial service, while Alice, as the adopted daughter of a self-made millionaire, was a socially aspiring society hostess and little else. The couple experienced a dramatic life change at the end of the century: the means of resolving a painful predicament gave both Northcotes the opportunity to find personal renewal and professional fulfilment. They performed in the colonies with a measure of grace and humanity but, imbued as they were with the values of their era and class, Harry and Alice delivered what the British Empire required; they never questioned the ethos or mode of delivery. What the Empire required was always and everywhere the political, economic and social domination of others, particularly those of cultural and racial difference, for the ultimate benefit of the Mother Country and British colonials. In India Harry and Alice made separate but related efforts to impose Western standards of sanitation and medicine. Harry's administration was principally concerned with providing immediate relief for catastrophic famine, and the implementation of Western methods of dealing with epidemics of plague and smallpox. Alice's work involved raising revenue for the Dufferin Fund, a charitable venture characteristic of Victorian era philanthropy: a combination of culturally specific assistance and control. Harry's job description changed when he became governor general of the newly federated Australia. He moved from autocratic rule in a colony of extraction to performing a leading role in a constitutional monarchy in an increasingly self-governing settler society. Harry fulfilled both jobs with judgement and diplomacy, and in Australia he steered the ship of state through turbulent political waters. Alice, having found her metier as governor's "incorporated" wife, and having discovered considerable organisational skill, master-minded the First Australian Exhibition of Women's Work in 1907, an event designed to support fragile federation. On the couple's return to England Harry was active in the campaigns to prevent reform of the House of Lords and female suffrage, indicating that his conservative political views had not changed. Harry died in 1911 and Alice lived out a long widowhood until 1934, creating no new persona, but engaging in activities informed by Harry's legacy.
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ItemImage is all: Lt-Colonel William Farquhar, Sir Stamford Raffles, and the founding and early development of colonial Singapore( 2012)In popular memory, Sir Stamford Raffles is hailed as the far-sighted founder of the British settlement at Singapore. This thesis challenges that image of Raffles, arguing that it obscures and undervalues the role played by Lieutenant Colonel William Farquhar. The thesis re-examines Farquhar’s role, along with that of Raffles, and analyses why Farquhar has been belittled and Raffles so glorified in Singapore’s conventional founding narrative. The thesis challenges three widely held beliefs which form the basis of Raffles’ dominance of that narrative. These are: that Raffles chose Singapore as a site for a new British trading post; that he was responsible for its rapid rise to a successful entrepôt port, and that he was responsible for Britain’s acquisition of Singapore. This research validates Farquhar’s competing claims that he was owed much credit in Singapore’s founding and early commercial success. The study breaks new ground. For the first time, an ongoing and positive link between Farquhar’s activities in Malacca and in Singapore is demonstrated. Moreover, evidence provided by Raffles’ biographers to aggrandise Raffles and criticise Farquhar is refuted by documentary evidence. Previously uncited material reveals the inaccuracy of two other popular beliefs: first, that Farquhar was an incompetent and disobedient official and, secondly, that Raffles was a highly principled and efficient administrator. This thesis also presents the first analysis of Raffles’ dismissal of Farquhar, and of Farquhar’s subsequent steps to obtain redress for what he considered was harsh and unjustified treatment by Raffles. Looking beyond Farquhar and Raffles, this research demonstrates how history can be tainted by subjective works, unsound memories and misinformation. It sheds more light on how and why particular men are immortalised, and how the pathways from historical records to myth making are created, as the cult of the great man obscures the achievements of other individuals. In addition, the research reveals how popular memory can create a simplistic, linear narrative, obscuring the complexities of history. This revisionist interpretation of the roles and characters of Farquhar and Raffles in Singapore’s founding and early development, based on new, as well as re-examined data, clarifies a misunderstood period in Singaporean history.