Governor Gawler's warrant and seal

Royal Warrant with intact wax seal granted to George Gawler, signifying his appointment as Governor of South Australia on the behalf of Queen Victoria, 1838.

George Gawler was South Australia's second Governor, arriving in the province of South Australia on 12 Ocotber 1838 onboard the Pestonjee Bomanjee (ship) with his mother, wife and five children. His appointment followed a long service in the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment, in which he obtained a commission as Ensign in 1810 and had risen to Major in 1831 before his departure from the Regiment on promotion to an unattached Lieutenant Colonelcy in 1834.

Governor Gawler and his wife were pious evangelical Christians. Both disapproved of dancing and card playing, and held daily morning prayers which all their servants were expected to attend. Mrs Gawler, with her sons, distributed religious tracts amongst the inhabitants of Adelaide.

Gawler's administration as Governor embraced a most difficult period in the colony's development and his recourse to extraordinary expenditure in an attempt to resolve these difficulties, led to the censure of his actions and ultimate recall in May 1841' (R. Hetherington, 'Gawler, George (1795 - 1869)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1, Melbourne University Press, 1966, pp 431-435).

"I am sorry to tell you the Governor here is not getting on so capitally in great things and in small. He has not yet ordered the new and really economical government house; I don't know why, but I suppose because he finds it is only four times as big as the one at Sydney, and is to cost three times as much, and he thinks perhaps that as that is a convict colony he ought to have a better house still. Besides, I am told he has made the council room too small, and has not estimated for the armchairs......But the economy, my dear Hill, your favorite theme - you never saw how cheaply things are done here..." From original correspondence to Rowland Hill, Esq., Adelaide, 4 January 1839, writing to England, published in the Southern Australian (9 January 1839 p.3, col. d-e)

'While many of the colonists approved of Gawler's actions, and attested to their confidence in his administration in a number of memorials and a testimonial prior to his departure from the colony, the weight of official opinion in England was against him, and only many years later was his administration impartially assessed and his measures vindicated' (R. Hetherington, 'Gawler, George (1795 - 1869)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1, Melbourne University Press, 1966, pp 431-435).

"...If Colonel Gawler had had the money to pay these accounts, he would surely have paid them, and he should not now grumble because they are charged to the year in which they were incurred...." South Australian (11 August 1846 p.3, col. a)

"...Colonel Gawler refers to the case of a man building his house in England, and states that his expenses are necessarily greater than after he has completed it. The cases are not parallel. He forgets he built at a time when provisions were at famine prices, and wages were three times the ordinary rate. Would a man in England in such circumstances build a house at all!" South Australian (11 August 1846 p.3, col. a)

"...what colonists blame him for was carrying on extensive public works at such time and prices, taking up the labor of the colony - raising the price of his operations has created a feeling of dread of interfering with the labor market, and has inspired of economy in reference to public works, which appears strong enough to last for fifty years to come." South Australian (11 August 1846 p.3, col. a)

Following his departure from South Australia in June 1841, Gawler returned with his family to England where he remained until his death in 1869. He was made a colonel in the British Army in 1846, only to resign from his commission in 1850.

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