page_title: David Murray Anderson
section_title: Governor of Newfoundland
hierarchical_section_title: David Murray Anderson / Governor of Newfoundland
caption_attribution_description: English: Taken on Government House, Newfoundland grounds in August 1934, Governor Sir David Anderson is entertaining Ramsay MacDonald, Prime Minister of Great Britain. Front row, left to right: Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, Governor Anderson, and Ishbel MacDonald, the daughter of the prime minister. Back row, left to right: Captain H.D. Robinson, R.N., private secretary to Governor Anderson, and Lieutenant-Commander J.A. Dicken, R.N.
context_page_description: Admiral Sir David Murray Anderson, KCB, KCMG, MVO, KStJ was a British naval officer and governor. Anderson served in the Royal Navy from the age of 13 and served in many colonial wars and was given various Empire postings, rising to the rank of admiral in 1931. He retired a year later and took up the posting as Governor of Newfoundland, where he also took up the role of Chairman of the Government following the suspension of self-government in the Dominion of Newfoundland. Leaving Newfoundland in 1935, he was appointed as Governor of New South Wales but served only briefly due to his ill health. He died while in office aged 62.
context_section_description: Anderson was then appointed on 20 October 1932 as the Governor of Newfoundland. He became His Majesty's Representative at a time of great instability in the Dominion of Newfoundland. Newfoundland had been hit badly by the Great Depression, leaving most of the banks on the verge of insolvency, saved only by emergency loans from Britain, the state Treasury was empty and the political process was discredited by corruption and incompetence.
  The Government, led by Prime Minister Frederick C. Alderdice, called upon the British government to take direct control until Newfoundland could become self-sustaining. The United Kingdom, concerned over Newfoundland's likelihood of defaulting on its loans, asked the government to establish the Newfoundland Royal Commission, headed by a Scottish peer, Lord Amulree. Its report, released in 1933, assessed Newfoundland's political system as institutionally corrupt and its economic future as bleak, recommending the abolition of responsible government, and its replacement by a Commission of the British Government. Acting on the report's recommendations, Alderdice's government voted itself out of existence in December 1933. Appointed as Chair of the Commission of Government in 1934, Anderson found his role as Governor with significantly expanded powers and proved himself up to the job, constantly sending reports back to the Dominions Office and giving advice to the Dominions Secretary on how to deal with the Commission members.
  Despite his new-found powers, Anderson took the position as the neutral mediator, intervening only when there was a dispute in the Commission. He was nevertheless involved with restructuring the administration of the state, including government departments, social services, the health system and the postal system. His approach proved to be not enough to bring the Commission out of petty arguments and disputes and in October 1935 it was announced that he would be replaced by another Naval Officer, Sir Humphrey Walwyn. Anderson and his wife departed from Newfoundland the following January.
caption: Anderson entertaining Ramsay MacDonald (seated, left), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, at Government House in August 1934.
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