Herbert Chermside Lieutenant - General Sir Herbert Charles Chermside GCMG , CB ( 31 July 1850 – 24 September 1929 ) was a British soldier who served as Governor of Queensland in Australia from 1902 to 1904 . Early life and education . Chermside was born in the town of Wilton in Wiltshire in 1850 . His parents were Rev . Richard Seymour Conway Chermside , rector of Wilton and son of Sir Robert Alexander Chermside , and Emily Dawson . He was a scholar at Eton College and then attended the Royal Military Academy , Woolwich where he graduated at the top of his year and was commissioned in the Royal Engineers in 1870 . Military career . In 1871 , Chermside and several other officers visited Paris during the Paris Commune , and were accused of supporting the Communards , narrowly escaping execution . After a posting in Ireland , he joined Benjamin Leigh Smith ' s expedition to the Arctic in 1873 . In 1876 , Chermside was sent to Turkey to work with the Turkish forces after Serbia and Montenegro declared war on the country in July . He was working as a military attaché to Turkey in 1877 , when Russia also declared war . After six months with the Turkish boundary commission , he was appointed Military Vice Consul to Anatolia in July 1879 . In 1882 , Chermside was promoted to Captain , and appointed to the British Army ' s intelligence staff in Egypt . He was given command of the Egyptian Army ' s 1st Battalion by the army ' s Sirdar , Evelyn Wood , and spent four years in Egypt where he took part in the Suakin Expedition of 1884 , against Muhammad Ahmad ' s Mahdi st forces and served as governor - general of the Red Sea littoral . He was transferred to Wadi Halfa in October 1886 , and spent the next two years repelling Mahdist incursions at Sarras . Although still a captain in the Royal Engineers , Chermside was brevetted major ( 1883 ) , lieutenant - colonel ( 1884 ) and colonel ( 1887 ) . In 1888 he returned to consular duties , spending a year in Kurdistan and seven years as military attaché to Constantinople . He then was assigned to reorganise the gendarmerie of the newly - autonomous Cretan State , later taking command of the British troops there and serving as military commissioner . In 1899 , Chermside returned to Britain , briefly commanding the Curragh Camp in Ireland from January 1900 , before commanding the 14th brigade and the 3rd division in South Africa during the Second Boer War . In 1901 , he resumed command at the Curragh , but in that same year was appointed the first post - Federation Governor of Queensland . Governor of Queensland . Chermside arrived in Brisbane on 24 March 1902 to find Queensland in the grip of a drought and economic recession . He immediately volunteered to forgo 15 per cent of his vice - regal salary , and his sacrifice and approachable nature made him a popular figure amongst the Queensland public . However , concerned by the parliamentary attitude to the role of governor , Chermside decided to resign in 1904 , although he delayed the announcement until a political crisis had been dealt with by granting a dissolution of parliament to Premier Sir Arthur Morgan after several failed attempts to establish a stable government . Once he had opened the new parliament , Chermside announced his retirement and left Queensland on 8 October on pre - retirement leave . Family and later life . Herbert Chermside was the second son of the rector of Wilton , Reverend Richard Seymour Conway Chermside , and his wife , Emily Dawson . His paternal grandfather was the military surgeon Sir Robert Chermside . Chermside was married twice : to Geraldine Katherine Webb whom he married in 1899 , although she died in 1910 ; and to Clementine Maria Reuter ( daughter of Paul Reuter ) from 1920 . Both marriages were childless . Sir Herbert retired from the British Army in 1907 at the rank of Lieutenant - General . He died in London , aged 79 , on 24 September 1929 . Honours and legacy . Chermside was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1886 . He was also made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George ( CMG ) in 1880 , upgraded to Knight Commander ( KCMG ) in 1897 and Knight Grand Cross ( GCMG ) in 1899 . The Brisbane suburb of Chermside is named after him .