George Arthur (Governor General)
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Major General Sir George Arthur (1784-1854) was Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada (March 23, 1838-1839?).
Sir George Arthur, Baronet., born in Plymouth, England, 21 June 1784; died 19 September 1854. He entered the army in 1804, and served in Sir James Craig's expedition to Italy in 1806. In 1814 he was appointed lieutenant governor of British Honduras, holding at the same time the rank of colonel on the staff, thus exercising the military command as well as the civil government. His dispatches about the suppression of a slave revolt in Honduras were seen by William Wilberforce and other philanthropists, and contributed in no slight degree to the 1834 abolition of slavery within the British Empire. I 1823 he was appointed lieutenant governor of Van Dieman's Land (now [Tasmania], [Australia]. At the time Tasmania was the main British penal colony. He failed in his attempts to reform the colony and the [transportation] system, and returned to England in March 1837. Later that year he was knighted, given the rank of Major General on the staff and appointed lieutenant governor of Upper Canada. Shortly after he had taken charge of the government, Upper Canada was invaded by a band of American sympathizers, one of a series of attempts to subvert British authority in Upper and Lower Canada.
The two colonies were united in 1841. Lord Sydenham, the first governor-general, asked Sir George Arthur to administer Upper Canada as deputy governor. Arthur agreed, on condition that the service was unpaid. Later in 1841 he returned to England and was created a baronet in recognition of his services in Canada. On 8 June 1842, he was appointed governor of the Indian presidency of Bombay, which he retained until 1846. He displayed great tact in the office, as well as ability, and this helped in extending and strengthening British rule in India.
He was appointed provisional governor-general, but did not assume office, as he was compelled by ill health to leave India before Lord Hardinge vacated the governor-general-ship.
Sir George Arthur, during his administration of the affairs of the presidency, perfected the Deccan survey, the object of which was to equalize and decrease the pressure of the land assessment on the cultivators of the Deccan; and gave his hearty support to the project of a railway line from Bombay to Cailian, which may be regarded as the germ of the great Indian peninsular railway, while during his administration the reclamation of the foreshore of the island of Bombay was projected.
On his return to England in 1846, he was made a privy councillor, and in 1853 he received the colonelcy of the 50th Queen's own regiment.