Henry Galway

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Henry Lionel Galway, KCMG, DSO (25 September 185917 June 1949) was the Governor of South Australia from 18 April 1914 until 30 April 1920.

Henry Lionel Gallwey was born on 25 September 1859 at Alverstoke, Southampton, England, to Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Lionel Gallwey and his second wife, Alicia Dorinda Lefanu, née MacDougall. Following his education at Cheltenham College and the Royal Military College in Sandhurst, he was commissioned in 1878. He served as an aide-de-camp to the governors of Bermuda, being promoted to captain in 1887.

Gallwey was appointed deputy commissioner and vice-consul in the newly established Oil Rivers Protectorate (later the Niger Coast Protectorate) in 1891. In March 1892, he failed to convince the King of Benin, Omo n’Oba Ovonramwen, into signing a deceptive 'treaty of friendship' that would make Benin a British colony. Instead, the King issued an edict barring all British officials and traders from entering Benin territories. The 'Gallwey Treaty', although it was never signed, became the legal basis for British invasion, occupation, and looting, culminating in the savage Benin Expedition of 1897, which destroyed the Kingdom of Benin. Gallway was often mentioned in dispatches during this time, and was rewarded with the Distinguished Service Order (DSO; 1896), appointment as Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG; 1899) and promotion to major (1897).

Given the rank of lieutenant-colonel when placed on...
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