Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson

Sir Thomas Buxton
Sir Thomas Buxton
Succeeded by	Sir George Le Hunte
Member of the House of Lords; Lord Temporal
	In office; 6 October 1892 – 2 December 1928; Hereditary Peerage
Preceded by	Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson
Succeeded by	Lionel Tennyson, 3rd Baron Tennyson
Personal details
Born	11 August 1852; Twickenham, Middlesex, England
Died	2 December 1928 (aged 76); Freshwater, Isle of Wight, England
Spouses	; Audrey Boyle (m. 1884; died 1916) ; Mary Prinsep (m. 1918)
Children	Lionel Tennyson, 3rd Baron Tennyson; Hon. Alfred Aubrey Tennyson; Hon. Harold Courtenay Tennyson;
Parent(s)	Emily Sellwood
Alma mater	Marlborough College; Trinity College, Cambridge;

Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson,

governor-general of Australia, in office from 1903 to 1904. He was previously Governor of South Australia

from 1899 to 1902.

Tennyson was born in

Administrator of the Government. Tennyson was eventually chosen to be Hopetoun's permanent replacement, but accepted only a one-year term. He was more popular than his predecessor among the general public, but had a tense relationship with Prime Minister Alfred Deakin

and was not offered an extension to his term. Tennyson retired to the Isle of Wight, and spent the rest of his life upholding his father's legacy.

Early life

Hallam Tennyson was born in Chapel House, a house his father was renting in Twickenham, Middlesex. His parents were Emily (née Sellwood) and Alfred Tennyson. He was named after his father's deceased friend Arthur Hallam. Tennyson's early childhood was spent at Farringford House on the Isle of Wight, which his father began renting in 1853 and bought in 1856. He was educated at Marlborough College and Trinity College, Cambridge.^[1] Tennyson's career aspirations ended when his parents' age and ill-health obliged him to leave Cambridge to become their personal secretary. The idea of going into politics was also abandoned.

It was partly for Hallam's benefit that Alfred Tennyson accepted a peerage in 1884, the year Hallam married Audrey Georgiana Florence Boyle (after being disappointed in his love for Mary Gladstone, daughter of William Ewart Gladstone). On his father's death in 1892, he inherited the title Baron Tennyson, and also the role of official biographer. His Tennyson: A Memoir was published in 1897.

Governor of South Australia

Like his father, Tennyson was an ardent imperialist, and in 1883 he had become a council member of the

Earl of Hopetoun

, suddenly announced his intention to resign.

Governor-General of Australia

Tennyson was the senior state governor at the time of Hopetoun's announcement, and thus became

Administrator of the Government upon his departure from Australia on 17 July 1902. There were some doubts about his ability to fill the job on a permanent basis since he had little experience of politics. But he had made a good impression in Australia through his modesty and frugality, unlike the ostentatiously imperious Hopetoun. In December 1902 he accepted the post for, at his own suggestion, a one-year appointment only.^[2]

The new Governor-General was popular and got on with Australians far better than his predecessor had done. But problems arose through the ambiguity of his position. The Prime Minister, Alfred Deakin, insisted that the Governor-General's official secretary must be appointed and paid by the Australian government. The British government objected (privately) because this would mean that the Governor-General could not carry out what was seen in London as his broader role in supervising the Australian government. Tennyson shared this view.

As a result, relations between Deakin and Tennyson grew tense. Deakin correctly suspected that Tennyson was reporting on him to London and trying to interfere on matters of policy, such as the naval agreement between Britain and Australia. For this reason Deakin did not encourage Tennyson to seek an extension of his one-year term. None of this was known to the public and Tennyson left Australia in January 1904 to universal expressions of approval.

Retirement and death

Tennyson spent the rest of his life at Farringford, serving as deputy

Governor of the Isle of Wight from 1913. His wife died in 1916, and in 1918 he remarried to Mary "May" Emily Prinsep (1853–1931). She was the daughter of Charles Robert Prinsep, Indian-born Advocate-General of Calcutta and later the owner of a large nutmeg plantation in Singapore, and niece of Sir Henry Thoby Prinsep, who adopted her when she was eleven upon her father's death. Tennyson was May Prinsep's second husband; her first husband was Andrew Hichens (d. 1906). The National Portrait Gallery has eight photographs of May Prinsep, taken by her relative Julia Margaret Cameron on the Isle of Wight.^[3]

Tennyson bequeathed many of his father's notebooks to Trinity College in 1924.^[1]

He had three sons by his first wife:

Lionel Hallam Tennyson, 3rd Baron Tennyson (7 November 1889 – 6 June 1951), married Hon. Clare Tennant, daughter of Edward Tennant, 1st Baron Glenconner; remarried to Carroll Donner (née Elting)
Sub-Lieutenant Hon. Harold Courtenay Tennyson (1896–1916), killed in action during World War I
Captain Hon. Alfred Aubrey Tennyson (1891–1918), killed in action during World War I

Tennyson died at Farringford on 2 December 1928.

Commemoration

A large oil portrait of Tennyson hangs in
Admiralty House, Kirribilli
.
Tennyson's coat of arms is painted in the entry foyer of Government House, Sydney.

Arms

Coat of arms of Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson^[4]^[5]
	Crest A dexter arm in armour, the hand in a gauntlet or, grasping a broken tilting spear enfiled with a garland of laurel. Escutcheon nebuly or, thereon a chaplet vert, between three leopard's heads jessant-de-lys of the second. Supporters Two leopards rampant guardant gules, semée de lys and ducally crowned or. Motto Respiciens Prospiciens (Look backward and forward) Other versions Full achievements:

References

^ ^a ^b "Tennyson, Hallam (TNY871H)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
^ "No. 27502". The London Gazette. 9 December 1902. p. 8509.
^ 'Christabel,' Mary Emily 'May' Prinsep, Julia Margaret Cameron, albumen print on gold-edged cabinet, 1866, Photographs Collection, National Portrait Gallery, npg.org.uk
^ Debrett's peerage, baronetage, knightage, and companionage. London : Dean & Son. 1903. p. 798, TENNYSON, BARON. (Tennyson.). Retrieved 26 June 2022. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^ Burke, Bernard; Burke, Ashworth P. (1915). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage and Baronetage, the Privy Council, Knightage and Companionage (77th ed.). London : Harrison & Sons. pp. 1945–1946, TENNYSON. Retrieved 26 June 2022. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

Serle, Percival (1949). "Tennyson, Hallam". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus & Robertson.

External links

Government offices
Preceded by Sir Thomas Buxton	Governor of South Australia 1899–1902	Succeeded by Sir George Le Hunte
Preceded by The Marquess of Linlithgow	Governor-General of Australia 1903–1904	Succeeded by The Lord Northcote
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Alfred Tennyson	Baron Tennyson 1892–1928	Succeeded by Lionel Tennyson

[:0-1] "Tennyson, Hallam (TNY871H)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.

[2] "No. 27502". The London Gazette. 9 December 1902. p. 8509.

[3] 'Christabel,' Mary Emily 'May' Prinsep, Julia Margaret Cameron, albumen print on gold-edged cabinet, 1866, Photographs Collection, National Portrait Gallery, npg.org.uk

[4] Debrett's peerage, baronetage, knightage, and companionage. London : Dean & Son. 1903. p. 798, TENNYSON, BARON. (Tennyson.). Retrieved 26 June 2022. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

[5] Burke, Bernard; Burke, Ashworth P. (1915). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage and Baronetage, the Privy Council, Knightage and Companionage (77th ed.). London : Harrison & Sons. pp. 1945–1946, TENNYSON. Retrieved 26 June 2022. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

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v t e Governors of South Australia
Before Federation	Hindmarsh Gawler Grey Robe Young MacDonnell Daly Fergusson Musgrave Jervois Robinson Earl of Kintore Buxton Baron Tennyson
After Federation	Le Hunte Bosanquet Galway Weigall Bridges Hore-Ruthven Dugan Barclay-Harvey Norrie George Bastyan Harrison Oliphant Nicholls Seaman Dunstan Mitchell Neal Jackson-Nelson Scarce Le Adamson

v t e Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson
Early poetry	Poems, Chiefly Lyrical (1830) "The Deserted House" "The Kraken" "The Lady of Shalott" "The Lotos-Eaters" "Mariana" "Oenone" "Mariana in the South" The Miller's Daughter "Claribel" "The Ballad of Oriana"
Poetry	"Break, Break, Break" "The Charge of the Light Brigade" "The Day-Dream" "A Dream of Fair Women" "Godiva" "St. Agnes" Lady Clare Idylls of the King "In Memoriam A.H.H." "Lady Clara Vere de Vere" "Locksley Hall" "Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal" Poems (1842) "The Palace of Art" The Princess "Sir Galahad" "St. Simeon Stylites" "Sweet and Low" "Tears, Idle Tears" "The Two Voices" "Ulysses"
Late poetry	"Crossing the Bar" "The Eagle" Enoch Arden "Flower in the Crannied Wall" "The Higher Pantheism" Maud "Ring Out, Wild Bells" "Tithonus"
Other works	The Foresters (play) The Window (song cycle)
Related	Chapel House, Twickenham Farringford House Tennyson Down Blackdown, West Sussex
People	Emily Tennyson (wife) Hallam Tennyson (son) Lionel Tennyson (grandson) Charles Tennyson (grandson) Emilia Tennyson (sister) Charles Tennyson Turner (brother) Frederick Tennyson (brother) Arthur Hallam (friend)

Authority control databases
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National	Germany Israel United States Czech Republic Netherlands Vatican
People	Australia Deutsche Biographie Trove
Other	SNAC IdRef