Frederick Irwin

Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Chidley Irwin (1788–1860) was acting Governor of Western Australia from 1847 to 1848.

Born in 1788 in Enniskillen, Ireland, Frederick Chidley Irwin was the son of Reverend James Irwin. In 1808, he was commissioned into the 83rd Regiment of Foot. He saw service in Spain and Portugal, and took part in several major battles of the Peninsula War, for which he was awarded a number of medals. In 1817 he was stationed in Canada, and later in Ceylon.

In 1828, the British government decided to establish a colony on the western coast of Australia, and a cousin of Irwin's, James Stirling, was appointed its first Lieutenant-Governor. Irwin was subsequently sent to the colony as a major in command of a detachment of the 63rd Regiment of Foot, whose mission was to protect and help establish the colony. He arrived with his men on board HMS Sulphur in June 1829, six days after the arrival of the first settlers and Stirling on the Parmelia.

Irwin's position as officer commanding the troops afforded him the further position of vice chairman of the Legislative Council appointed by Stirling in January 1831. From September 1832 until September 1833, Irwin was temporarily appointed to act as administrator of the colony while Stirling was absent.

During Irwin's period in charge the colony experienced difficulty in its relations with the Aboriginal people, and both colonists and Aboriginals were killed in different encounters such as the Pinjarra Massacre. After the killing of several settlers Irwin placed a bounty on the heads of the most aggressive Noongar warriors, including Yagan and Midgegooroo.

In September 1833, after more than four years in Western Australia, Irwin returned to England, partly to give an account to the Colonial Office of the events that had occurred in the colony while it was under his charge. While there, he published The State and Position of Western Australia, the first published account of the colony. He also sought religious assistance for the colony, resulting in the arrival of the colony's first missionary, Louis Giustiniani, in 1836. He married his wife Elizabeth Courthope, sister of auditor-general of Western Australia in December 1836. In 1837, having been promoted to Major, he returned to Western Australia, and was made permanent Commandant of the Western Australian Forces. He was further promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1845.

On the death of Governor Andrew Clarke in February 1847, Irwin took office as acting Governor until the arrival of the new governor, Charles Fitzgerald, in August 1848. His administration was extremely unpopular with the settlers of Western Australia, due to both the poor financial state of the colony and his stern character, and the arrival of Fitzgerald was widely celebrated. He retired from the army in 1854 and returned to England in 1856, where he died in Cheltenham in 1860.

In 1991 the Frederick Irwin Anglican School was opened and named in honour of his contributions to Western Australia.