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Son of the sixth Earl of
Hopetoun and his wife, Etheldred Anne, daughter of C. T. S. Birch
Reynardson, was born at Hopetoun, Scotland, on 25 September 1860. He was
educated at Eton and Sandhurst, where he passed in 1879 but did not enter
the army. In 1883 he became conservative whip in the house of lords, in
1885 a lord in waiting to Queen Victoria, and for the years 1887 to 1889
represented the Queen as lord high commissioner to the general assembly of
the Church of Scotland. He was appointed governor of Victoria in 1889 and
arrived in Melbourne on 28 November. A period of inflation was just coming
to an end, and though efforts were made to bolster up a financial
structure basically false, the position steadily deteriorated, and in May
1893 all the banks in Melbourne except four closed their doors and a long
depression followed. Hopetoun travelled throughout the colony making a
highly favourable impression on all he met. No other governor had ever
been so popular and he left Australia in March 1895 to the regret of all.
After his return to Great
Britain he was made a privy councillor, was appointed paymaster-general in
the Salisbury government from 1895 to 1898, and then became lord
chamberlain until 1900. In October he was appointed the first
governor-general of Australia, arrived there in December and took part in
the inauguration of the Commonwealth of Australia by the Duke of York on 1
January 1901. Immediately after arriving he had decided that the last
premier of the senior state, Sir William Lyne (q.v.) should be asked to
form the first Commonwealth government. But Lyne had been an opponent of
federation and could not get a following, so Edmund Barton (q.v.) became
the first prime minister. Hopetoun, however, was not destined to hold his
position for a long period. He had been given a salary of £10,000 a year,
and he had some reason to believe some adequate provision would be made
for his expenses; but this was not done and an attempt to have his salary
increased was not successful. £10,000 was granted to pay the exceptional
expenses incurred on account of the royal visit, but nothing else was
done, and in May 1902 Hopetoun resigned. He believed that he could not
carry out the functions of his office unless he were prepared to spend an
additional amount of £16,000 each year or even more. Later governors were
allowed the sum of £5500 a year for expenses. Hopetoun, who had to provide
for two residences, one at Sydney and another at Melbourne, had been
placed in a quite unreasonable position. After his return he was secretary
for Scotland for a few months in 1905, but failing health, he had always
had a frail constitution, prevented him from taking a further part in
politics. He died at Pan on 29 February 1908. He was created Marquis of
Linlithgow on 27 October 1902. He married in 1886 the Hon. Hersey Alice
Eveleigh De Moleyne, daughter of the 4th Lord Ventry, who survived him
with a daughter and two sons, the elder of whom, Victor Alexander John
Hope, 2nd Marquis of Linlithgow, born in 1887, was viceroy and
governor-general of India from 1936 to 1943. |
