Towshend puts Lord Sydney in shadows

Towshend puts Lord Sydney in shadows
Brian Williams

Sydney, July 31: Seldom has an historical figure been so little honoured in a great city that took his name, than the British aristocrat Lord Sydney. Put simply, Pete Townshend, a founder member of the famed rock group The Who, is far better known in the host city for this year's Olympic games than his 18th century namesake Tommy Townshend.

Forget that as Lord Sydney, Tommy Townshend also had Sydney in Nova Scotia named after him and played a key role in bringing reconciliation between Britain and the fledgling United States after the American War of Independence.

The fact is that few Sydneysiders know exactly who the city was named after and even fewer could tell you what was his non-aristocratic name. An inquiry to the Sydney city council historical section about Tommy Townshend drew a blank until it was pointed out that there was an 'H' in Lord Sydney's name.

'Oh his name is spelled the same way as Pete Townshend,' a clerk exclaimed. New South Wales parliamentarian Andrew Tink laments how little honoured is Lord Sydney in his own backyard and hopes the Olympics will revive the reputation of a statesman he believes was a much under-rated historical figure.

''The 1780s were arguably the most important period in the history of the English speaking world and Lord Sydney was right in the middle of it,'' Tink said. ''How many people have cities on two continents named after them and can say they directly influenced the futures of Australia, Canada and the United States as well as his own country Britain.''

Tink, who has made himself almost a lone Australian expert on Lord Sydney through painstaking archive searches, recounts his hero's achievements and the part they played in the history of the English speaking world.

When Britain in 1783 bowed unwillingly to the Independence struggle of settlers in the United States, Lord Sydney gave an impassioned speech to the British parliament calling on his country to forget the past, get over its loss and develop commercial ties with the new nation.

His words were credited with turning the tide of public opinion towards reconciliation and won for him his elevation to the title of Lord Sydney. However in his speech, Tommy Townshend said London also had an obligation to loyalists who had supported Britain in the War of Independence. With the birth of the United States many fled north to Canada settling in Nova Scotia.

In appreciation of Lord Sydney's efforts, the loyalists named Sydney in Nova Scotia after him. Tink argues that it was Lord Sydney's support for the loyalists that was a key reason why the English of Canada went on to dominate the country over the country's French settlers.

Lord Sydney's influence on Australia was even more direct. As Britain's home and colonial secretary (minister), he was the Government's front man for the plan to settle Australia with convicts to ease overcrowding in British jails and fill the void left by the loss of the United States as a destination for prisoners.

He also made the choice of retired naval captain Arthur Phillip as the man to lead the settlement of Australia at Sydney in 1788. Most historians agree that without the leadership of Phillip, the settlement would have failed in the harsh new land far away from the rest of the world.

It was a grateful Phillip, unlike Tommy Townshend, revered by Australians of all ages, who named the new settlement after Lord Sydney.

Born in 1733 as the son of aristocrat Lord Townshend, and later to become an aristocrat in his own right as Lord Sydney, Tommy Townshend graduated from Cambridge University with a Bachelor of Arts when he was just 21.

He went almost immediately into politics, holding a number of key parliamentary posts before taking on his colonial roles. (Reuters)