Dominick Daly

Sir Dominick Daly

Sir Dominick Daly (11 August 1798 – 19 February 1868) was the Governor of Prince Edward Island from 11 July 1854 to 25 May 1859 and later Governor of South Australia from 4 March 1862 until his death on 19 February 1868.

He was born in Ardfry, County Galway, Ireland in 1798 and studied in Birmingham. In 1823, he came to Lower Canada as secretary to Lieutenant-Governor Sir Francis Nathaniel Burton. In 1827, he was appointed provincial secretary for Lower Canada. After the Act of Union in 1840, it became a prerequisite for his post that he be elected and he ran successfully in the Canada East riding of Mégantic in 1841. In 1841, he was appointed provincial secretary of Canada East and a member of the Executive Council. When the council resigned en masse in November 1843 in a dispute with Governor Sir Charles Theophilus Metcalfe, Daly chose to remain, which was viewed as a betrayal by Reformers. This left Daly as acting head of government for several weeks. In 1844, he became provincial secretary for both Canada East and Canada West. In March 1845, he was challenged to a duel by Reformer Thomas Cushing Aylwin; shots were fired but no one was injured. Daly was removed from the Executive Council in 1848 when Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine came to power; he returned to England and served on a commission of inquiry.

In 1852, Daly was appointed lieutenant-governor of Tobago; he was next appointed to the same post in Prince Edward Island. In 1858, he announced his resignation and departed the following year. In October 1861, he was appointed the next Governor of South Australia and died in office in 1868 in Adelaide.

Geography

The town of Daly Waters was named after the new Governor of South Australia by John McDouall Stuart in 1862 on his third attempt to find a path from south to north across the centre of Australia. The Daly River further north was named after him in 1865 by surveyor Boyle Finniss.

External links

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online

Political Summary

Political offices
Preceded by Robert Baldwin as Premier of Canada West	Joint Premiers of the Province of Canada - Canada West 1843	Succeeded by William Henry Draper as Premier of Canada West
Preceded by Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine as Premier of the Provinces of Canada	Joint Premiers of the Province of Canada - Canada East 1843	Succeeded by Denis-Benjamin Viger
Government offices
Preceded by Henry Yates	Lieutenant Governor of Tobago 1852	Succeeded by Henry Yates
Preceded by Sir Alexander Bannerman	Governor of Prince Edward Island 1854–1859	Succeeded by Charles Young
Preceded by Sir Richard G. MacDonnell	Governor of South Australia 1862–1868	Succeeded by Right Honourable Sir James Fergusson, Bt

Persondata
Name	Daly, Dominick
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	11 August 1798
Place of birth
Date of death	19 February 1868
Place of death