Richard Graves MacDonnell - Governor in Gambia and The West Indies

Governor in Gambia and The West Indies

MacDonnell was called to the Irish bar in 1838, and to the English bar, at Lincoln’s Inn, 25 January 1841. On 20 July 1843, he was appointed to the new post of Chief Justice of The Gambia. After four years there, amidst long breaks for his health travelling through the United States and Canada, he intended to hand in his resignation to Henry Grey, 3rd Earl Grey and resume practice at the English bar. But, on 1 October 1847, Grey persuaded him otherwise and appointed him Governor of the British settlements in Gambia, a post he held for a further four years.

While in Gambia, MacDonnell (a cousin of the explorers Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton and Admiral Richard Charles Mayne) spent much of his time indulging his passion for exploration, and organising punitive campaigns against unruly native tribes. His expeditions opened up the interior of Africa from the Gambia River to the Senegal River. The military expeditions which he accompanied against native tribes who had long oppressed the traders of the river were a success and extended the limits of British commerce in the region. On one visit to a native king an ambush was laid for him, and he narrowly avoided being assassinated. In return, the British government sent four hundred men to inflict a summary chastisement, with MacDonnell acting as Captain of one of the volunteer companies.

In 1852, (when he was also gazetted Companion of the Order of the Bath) he was nominated as Lieutenant Governor of St. Lucia, but without taking up the post he was sent, 10 January 1853, to become administrator and Captain General of the island of St. Vincent. He was Lieutenant General of St Vincent from 1853 to 1854.