Lieutenant-General Sir Richard Bourke KCB was Governor of the Colony of New South Wales, Australia between 1831 and 1837.
Born in Dublin, Ireland on 4 May 1777, Bourke was educated at Westminster and studied law at Christ Church College, Oxford. He joined the army in 1798, serving in Holland with the Duke of York before a posting in South America where he participated in the siege and storming of Montevideo.
In recognition of his duty to the crown, Bourke was first appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the Eastern District of the Cape of Good Hope before his appointment succeeding Sir Ralph Darling as Governor of New South Wales in 1831.
Bourke proved to be an able, if controversial, Governor. Appalled by the excessive punishments doled out to convicts, Bourke passed 'The Magistrates Act', which limited the sentence a magistrate could pass to fifty lashes (previously there was no such limit). Furious magistrates and employers petitioned the crown against this interference with their legal rights, fearing that a reduction in punishments would cease to provide enough deterrence to the convicts.
Bourke, however, continued to create controversy within the colony by combating the inhumane treatment handed out to convicts, including limiting the number of convicts each employer was allowed to seventy, as well as granting rights to freed convicts, such as allowing the acquisition of property and service on juries. It has been argued that the abolishment of convict transportation to Australia in 1840 can be attributable to the actions of Bourke.
Emboldened by these changes, Bourke abolished the distinction of the Anglican Church as the state church of New South Wales, declaring each religious community on equal footing before the law. He also increased spending on education and was credited as the first governor to publish satisfactory accounts of public receipts and expenditure.
In 1837, he named the town of Melbourne; Bourke Street in Melbourne's central business district and the town of Bourke, New South Wales were named after him in turn. There is a statue of Bourke outside the State Library of New South Wales in Sydney which records his accomplishments as Governor in florid detail.
Bourke died near Limerick, Dublin on 13 August 1855.
