Harry Ord

Ord was the son of Henry Gough Ord and grandson of Craven Ord (1756–1832) of Greenstead Hall, Essex, a prominent antiquarian. He was educated at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, (1835–1837). He served in the Royal Engineers, (1837–1856), principally in the West Indies, West Africa, and the Anglo-French expedition to the Baltic (1854), during the Crimean War.

Ord later held many important colonial posts, including:

• Commissioner of the Gold Coast (1855–1856)
• Commissioner at the Courts of Paris and The Hague (1856–1857)
• Governor of Dominica (1857–1861)
• Governor of Bermuda (1861–1864)
• Special Commissioner to West Africa (1864–1867)
• Governor of the Straits Settlements (1867–1873)
• Governor of Western Australia (1877–1880)

The official picture of Sir Harry Ord as the Governor of the Straits Settlements

Sir Harry Ord, whom the second Colonial Office appointed in 1867 as the Governor of the Straits Settlements, was at first given no instructions regarding the Colony's relations with the Malay States. He was unpopular in the Straits Settlements, but was an ambitious and energetic man, who was ready to do what he could to restore order and promote trade in the Peninsula. Conditions in Malaya at that time were extremely unsettled. The quarrels of the Malays were intensified by feuds between competing groups of Chinese miners, and the links of the Chinese with the British settlements threatened to involve these too in the trouble. After some experience of negotiating with Malays and Siamese, Ord worked out a policy under which he proposed to share the supervision of the Peninsula between Britain and Siam. This policy was disapproved by the Colonial Office, and Ord was directed to abstain from all interference in the affairs of the Malay States.

He married Julia Graham of Exmouth daughter of Admiral James Carpenterin in 1846 by whom he had three sons. Sir Harry Ord died on 20 August 1885 from heart attack. He is buried in the churchyard of St. Martin's parish church in Fornham St. Martin, Suffolk, England. The village institute in Fornham was built in Ord's memory with funds donated by the Maharaja of Johore.[1]

The Ord River in the Kimberley region of Western Australia was named in his honour, as was Ord Street, Fremantle.

• Colonial Office List, various list, DNB
• One Hundred Years of Singapore (1819)
• C.D. Cowan, Nineteenth Century Malaya: The Origins of British Political Control, (1961)

• Sir Harry Ord Biography from Australian Dictionary of Biography online
• Sir Harry Ord Biography from Constitutional Centre of WA online

• The Petition of Chung Keng Quee & 44 Others to Sir Harry Ord seeking government protection.