Sir George Arthur, 1st Baronet

Sir George Arthur, 1st Baronet (born June 21, 1784, Plymouth, Devon, Eng.—died Sept. 19, 1854, London) was a colonial administrator who was governor of Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania) from 1825 to 1836. His efforts to expand the island’s economy were remarkably successful.

After army duty in the Napoleonic Wars in Europe and Egypt (1804–14), Arthur served as lieutenant governor of British Honduras (1814–22). He was named lieutenant governor of Van Diemen’s Land in 1823 and became governor two years later, when the colony was separated from New South Wales. That year (1825) he also helped the Van Diemen’s Land Company to develop the northwest area of the island. He campaigned effectively against the bushrangers, rural outlaws who had robbed the settlers and fought the Aborigines. His attempt to restrict the Aboriginal population to the southeastern peninsula behind the so-called Black Line of armed settlers was a complete failure (see Black War). By 1835 the remaining Aborigines were persuaded to settle northeast of Tasmania on Flinders Island, where they soon died out.

Arthur established a penal settlement at Port Arthur (1832) and a model prison for boys at Point Puer (1835). He also helped to develop the colony’s religious life and education. He antagonized the Tasmanian and Sydney press, however, by his autocratic administration and by his attempts at censorship.

In 1837 Arthur was appointed lieutenant governor of Upper Canada (now Ontario), arriving just after a rebellion against British rule had been suppressed. He was rewarded with a baronetcy for his help in uniting Upper Canada and Lower Canada (now Quebec) in 1841 and in 1842 was named governor of Bombay. He retired to England in 1846.