Vice-regal consorts

The consort is the companion of the governor, a position usually filled by the governor's wife (or more recently the governor's husband), daughter or sister. This is not an official role and it comes with no job description, nor salary. The governor is appointed as the representative of the sovereign. It is expected that the governor (always a man until the 21st century) will be accompanied by his wife and family who will support him in his duties. More significantly, the governor's wife in the 19th century was expected to be the leader of colonial society, someone who set the standards of polite behaviour, and whose own behaviour was beyond reproach. 1 The vice-regal consort was part of a team, each with the gender-defined role common in the 19th century, a team that traditionally required 'a peer with a pleasant wife.'2 The importance of the team of governor and consort continued into the 20th century. Governor-General Sir William Slim commented to Sir Eric Woodward that 'the wife is at least half, and in many things more than half, responsible for the success of the team.'