# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/O'Connell, Maurice Charles (1812-1879)

​O'CONNELL, Sir MAURICE CHARLES (1812–1879), soldier and colonial statesman, the eldest son of General Sir Maurice Charles Philip O'Connell [q. v.], was born in January 1812 in Sydney, New South Wales. As an infant he was taken from Sydney to Ceylon, whence, in 1819, he was sent home to be educated, first at Dr. Pinkney's school at East Sheen, afterwards at the High School, Edinburgh. Thence he went to Dublin and Paris, where he was for a time a military student at the college of Charlemagne. In 1828 he entered the army as an ensign in the 73rd regiment of foot. For three years he served in Gibraltar and Malta, and in 1831 went with his regiment to Jersey, where he acted as its adjutant till 1835, being promoted lieutenant on 24 Jan. 1834. In 1835 he obtained leave to raise in Ireland a regiment of the British legion for Spain, was placed on half-pay on 24 July, and in September, within seven weeks after his marriage, embarked with the regiment, the 10th Munster light infantry, of which he had been gazetted lieutenant-colonel, to take service under Queen Isabella against Don Carlos. During nearly two years he led this regiment, fought several engagements with the Carlists, and earned much distinction, becoming in turn colonel and deputy adjutant-general of the British legion and general of brigade. On one occasion he nar​rowly escaped being entrapped by a guerilla party. In 1837 the legion was disbanded at San Sebastian, and O'Connell returned to England, much disgusted with his treatment by the Spaniards, but decorated with the orders of knight-commander of Isabella the Catholic, knight of San Fernando, and knight extraordinary of Charles III.
On his return to England, O'Connell was attached to the 51st regiment, and on 22 June 1838 was appointed to be captain in the 28th regiment, which he accompanied to New South Wales under the command of his father, to whom he now became military secretary. When the regiment was recalled, he sold out and settled in New South Wales, his native country, devoting himself to pastoral pursuits, and particularly to the breeding of horses, upon which he became one of the leading authorities in Australia.
O'Connell stood without success as a candidate for Sydney in the first legislative council in 1843, but in August 1845 was returned for Port Phillip. On 7 Nov. 1848 he retired from the legislature on being appointed a commissioner for crown lands beyond the settled districts of the colony in the Burnett district, and in 1853 he was requested to undertake the settlement of Port Curtis, of which, in January 1854, he was appointed government resident, as well as commissioner of crown lands and police magistrate. His efforts were highly successful, but at much personal cost to himself, and in the face of considerable discouragements. He was deprived of his post of resident on the erection of the Moreton Bay district into the separate colony of Queensland, and his name now became identified with the political life of the new colony.
In 1859 he was nominated by Sir George Bowen to be a member of the first legislative council of Queensland, and from 21 May to 28 Aug. was a member of the Herbert ministry without portfolio. In 1861 he became president of the council, and he continued to hold that office till his death. He fulfilled his duties with invariable courtesy, dignity, and impartiality. He is credited with a prominent share in the promotion of primary and secondary (grammar school) education, and he urged the necessity of a religious element in the school curriculum. His general tone of mind was very conservative.
Four times it fell to his lot, as president of the council, to administer the government of the colony in the interregnum between two governors: first, from 4 Jan. to 14 Aug. 1868, on the departure of Sir George Bowen, when he entertained the Duke of Edinburgh; secondly, from 2 Jan. to 12 Aug. 1871, after the death of Colonel Blackall; thirdly, from 12 Nov. 1874 to 23 Jan. 1875, after the departure of the Marquis of Normanby to New Zealand, and again for less than a month in 1877. In 1868 he was knighted. On two occasions O'Connell felt called upon to defend himself in his place in council. In 1871 he was blamed outside for his action in dissolving parliament when acting as governor, the opposition alleging that he had been induced by private reasons to play into the hands of the ministry. Again, in 1875, strictures were passed on his presence at a dinner to celebrate the centenary of the ‘Liberator's’ birth, where the toast of the pope was permitted to take precedence of that of the queen, but he explained that he had no previous knowledge that this would happen, and expressed his opinion that Roman catholics were ill-advised to adopt the course in question. He was himself a member of the church of England.
O'Connell died on 23 March 1879, and was awarded a public funeral. He had for some years depended only on his official income, having been obliged to part with the last portion of his estates in 1867. His widow was left penniless, and the Queensland parliament voted her an annual pension. In 1878 the legislative council had presented him with his bust, which now stands in the council chamber. He was provincial grand master of the freemasons of the Irish constitution, and was also colonel-commandant of the Queensland volunteers.
O'Connell married, in Jersey, on 23 July 1835, Eliza Emmeline, daughter of Colonel Philip le Geyt of the 63rd regiment. He died childless.
[Queensland Courier of 24 March, in an article largely derived ‘from Sir Maurice and his family;’ Army Lists; Queensland Parliamentary Debates.]
C. A. H.