To maintain order amongst a disreputable people: The case of Captain Armstrong, colonial governance and scandal at the antipodes, 1878-1887

Abstract

On 4 April 1882, the New South Wales government steamer Thetis arrived at Lord Howe Island bearing J. Bowie Wilson, recently appointed commissioner of an inquiry into the conduct of the Island’s resident magistrate, Captain Richard Armstrong. Following a hastily convened investigation, Wilson recommended that the government confirm Armstrong’s suspension from office. Armstrong claimed he had done nothing to deserve the dismissal and that Wilson’s inquiry made a mockery of justice. So, while the colonial press initially expressed indignation against Armstrong’s alleged wrongdoings, over time the focus of moral outrage shifted to Wilson. This thesis explores the case of Captain Armstrong, a prominent scandal in 1880s New South Wales. It traces Armstrong’s connection with Lord Howe Island from its beginning in 1878 to its end in 1887, when he finally received tangible recognition of injustice, £1500 compensation. By untangling the many threads of the Armstrong case, it is possible to paint a vivid and detailed picture of colonial governance in late nineteenth-century New South Wales. It is not merely that the case highlights the experience of a minor official in a remote outpost – a much neglected area of Australian and imperial history – but that subsequent press and parliamentary debates reveal some of the most vexing issues in colonial society. It sheds light on the contemporary temperance movement, competing ideals of masculine character and pervasive anxieties surrounding the issue of the colony’s reputation. The Armstrong case provides compelling evidence that colonial governance, whether in a remote outpost or an established colony, was a fragile enterprise, fraught with contradictions and anxieties.