Stonehaven, Lord (1874-1941), John Lawrence Baird, Baron Stonehaven, was a British politician who served as governor general of Australia from 1925 to 1931.
Stonehaven entered the diplomatic service in 1896. In 1910, he won election to the House of Commons. During World War I (1914-1918), he worked in military intelligence in France and won the Distinguished Service Order in 1915. In 1916, the United Kingdom government recalled him to England to represent Parliament on the Air Board, the forerunner of the Air Ministry. After the war, he served as undersecretary of state to the Home Department and as minister of transport and first commissioner of works and public buildings.
At the end of Stonehaven’s term as governor general, Australia was gripped by the global economic depression that affected many countries during the 1930’s. After his return to the United Kingdom in 1930, Stonehaven sought to promote Australia as a country with solid financial credit. In the middle and late 1930’s, he concentrated on the domestic politics of the United Kingdom and the looming crisis in Europe. He became chairman of the Conservative Party and actively opposed the policy of appeasement toward the Nazi Party of Germany.
Stonehaven was born in London on April 27, 1874, and educated at Eton College and at Oxford University. When he took up his post as governor general of Australia, he received the title Baron Stonehaven. He was created Viscount Stonehaven in 1938. He died in Scotland on Aug. 20, 1941.
