The Right Honourable The Lord Olivier KCMG CB PC |
|
---|---|
Governor of Jamaica | |
In office 16 May 1907 – January 1913 |
|
Monarch |
Edward VII George V |
Preceded by | Hugh Clarence Bourne (acting) |
Succeeded by | Philip Clark Cork (acting) |
Secretary of State for India | |
In office 22 January 1924 – 3 November 1924 |
|
Monarch | George V |
Prime Minister | Ramsay MacDonald |
Preceded by | The Viscount Peel |
Succeeded by | The Earl of Birkenhead |
Personal details | |
Born |
Sydney Haldane Olivier 16 April 1859 Colchester, Essex |
Died | 15 February 1943 | (aged 83)
Nationality | British |
Political party | Labour |
Spouse(s) | Margaret Cox |
Alma mater | Corpus Christi College, Oxford |
Sydney Haldane Olivier, 1st Baron Olivier, KCMG, CB, PC (16 April 1859 – 15 February 1943) was a British civil servant. A Fabian and a member of the Labour Party, he served as Governor of Jamaica and as Secretary of State for India in the first government of Ramsay MacDonald. He was the uncle of the actor Laurence Olivier.
Olivier was born in Colchester, the second of eight children of Anne Elizabeth Hardcastle (née Arnould) and the Reverend Henry Arnold Olivier, a stern Anglican. His brothers included Henry (1850–1935), who had a military career ending as a colonel,Herbert, a successful portrait painter, and Gerard (1869–1939), a clergyman (the father of Laurence). During Olivier's youth, the family spent time at Lausanne and Kineton, and at Poulshott in Wiltshire, where Henry Olivier was rector. Sydney Olivier was sent to Tonbridge School, and then studied philosophy and theology at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. At Oxford he became a close friend of Graham Wallas, who came from a similar background.