Frederick Barlee

Sir Frederick Palgrave Barlee (6 February 1827 – 8 August 1884) was Colonial Secretary of Western Australia from 1855 to 1875; Lieutenant-Governor of the British Honduras (now Belize) from 1877 to 1882; and Administrator of Trinidad in 1884.

Frederick Barlee was born in Worlingworth, Suffolk, England on 6 February 1827. He was educated privately and at local schools, and in 1845 he entered the public service as a clerk to the Ordnance Department in Chatham and Woolwich. In 1851, Barlee married Jane Oseland. Later that year he was posted to Sierra Leone, where he served initially as a barrack-master and storekeeper. In 1853 he became clerk to the Executive and Legislative Councils, and private secretary to the Governor of Sierra Leone Arthur Edward Kennedy.

In 1855, Kennedy was appointed Governor of Western Australia, and he arranged for Barlee to be appointed Colonial Secretary.

In 1862, Governor Kennedy was succeeded by Governor John Hampton, and Barlee returned to a position of influence. In 1863, he became permanent chairman of the Board of Education. The following year he gave Bishop Matthew Hale financial help in establishing the Bishop's Collegiate School (now Hale School), and was appointed first Governor of the school. That year, he also invested in the unsuccessful attempt to establish a pastoral settlement at Roebuck Bay. Eventually, Barlee again fell out of favour with the governor, this time through disagreements over the treatment of convicts, and the management of the convict system in general. During the period from November 1868 to September 1869 Colonel John Bruce was acting governor and there was a great deal of friction between Bruce and Barlee. After briefly visiting Western Australia to attend to some investments, he returned to England to await his next posting. He was made KCMG in 1883, but had to wait until April 1884 for his next posting, as Administrator of Trinidad. Barlee arrived at Port of Spain, Trinidad and took up his appointment in June 1884, but died from asthma just seven weeks later on 8 August 1884. Barlee had married in 1851, Jane, daughter of Edward John Oseland, of Coleraine, Ireland, who survived him.