Colonial Administrator
In May 1849 Ward was appointed Lord High Commissioner to the Ionian Islands, a post he held to 1855. The islands were then under the protection of the British Crown. He arrived at Corfu on 2 June 1849, found the local assembly unworkable and prorogued it. On 1 August 1849 he proclaimed an amnesty to those who had taken part in the rebellion in Cephalonia against his predecessor, John Colborne, 1st Baron Seaton. By the end of August there was a fresh insurgency; he went to Cephalonia, and suppressed it by October. His actions were criticised in the House of Commons. The rest of his time was more peaceful, but Ward used his prerogative powers freely to banish newspaper editors of papers and members of the assembly. He left on 13 April 1855.
Ward on 11 May 1855 became governor of Ceylon. His first speech, that year, dealt with railways; he developed also economic policy on communications and telegraphy, and immigrant labour. He also consolidated the public administration. On the outbreak of the Indian rebellion of 1857 he despatched all the European troops in the colony to Bengal.
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Famous quotes containing the word colonial:
“In colonial America, the father was the primary parent. . . . Over the past two hundred years, each generation of fathers has had less authority than the last. . . . Masculinity ceased to be defined in terms of domestic involvement, skills at fathering and husbanding, but began to be defined in terms of making money. Men had to leave home to work. They stopped doing all the things they used to do.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)