Henry Stafford Northcote, 1st Baron Northcote
Baron Northcote of Exeter (1846-1911), governor-general of the Australian commonwealth, born on 18 Nov. 1846 at 13 Devonshire St.,Portland Place, London, was second son of Sir Stafford Henry Northcote, first earl of Iddesleigh [q.v.] ; his mother was Cecilia Frances, daughter of Thomas Farrer, and sister of Thomas Farrer, first Lord Farrer. He went to Eton in 1858 and Merton College, Oxford, in 1865, graduating B.A.in 1869 and proceeding M.A. in 1873. On leaving Oxford he was appointed to a clerkship in the foreign office on 18 March 1868. In Feb. 1871 he was attached to the joint high commission, of which his father was one of the members and which sat at Washington from Feb. to May 1871, to consider the Alabama claims and other outstanding questions between Great Britain and the United States. The negotiation having residted in the Treaty of Washington of 8 May 1871, he became secretary to the British member of the claims commission which was constituted under the 12th ar