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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Nelson, Marlborough & Westland Provincial Districts]

The Hon. Captain William Douglas Hall Baillie

The Hon. Captain William Douglas Hall Baillie, who was second Superintendent of Marlborough, comes of an old Scotch family, whose name is met with in the time of Edward I., when Sir John Baillie was appointed one of the arbitrators to hear and determine upon the claims of the competitors for the Crown of
The Hon. Capt. Baillie.

The Hon. Capt. Baillie.

Scotland, in the year 1292. Sir William Baillie, of Lamington, in Lanarkshire, had three sons, the second of whom settled in County Down, Ireland, and from him Captain Baillie is descended. Captain Baillie's father was a lieutenant in the 23rd Fusiliers, and a Waterloo veteran, and afterwards became Commissioner of Crown Lands at New Brunswick; and his grandfather, a captain in the 51st Regiment, was present at the battle of Minden. Captain Baillie himself was born at Brunswick, Canada, on the 22nd of February, 1827, and was educated at the Military School, Woolwich, At the age of nineteen, he entered the British army as an ensign of the 24th Foot, and went to India, where he was for six years serving with Sir Hugh Gough, and Sir Colin Campbell, afterwards respectively Lord Gough and Lord Clyde. Ensign Baillie was in the Punjaub campaign of 1848–9, and was present at the battle of Chilian Wallah, when his regiment was much cut up by the Sihk army under Shere Singh. At the end of 1853. Lieutenant Baillie returned to England. He obtained promotion to the rank of captain in the year 1854, and was Commandant at Chichester until he came to New Zealand, in the ship “Oriental,” in 1857. Captain Baillie settled in the Wairau, where he remained for several years, but he afterwards disposed of his run of 5000 acres, and has since then resided on his estate near Picton. He has for about forty years been connected with the volunteer movement, and for a great portion of that time he was Colonel Commandant of the Marlborough Volunteer Forces. In 1881, he accompanied the expedition to Parihaka. Captain Baillie entered politics in the year 1861, when he was returned as a member of the Marlborough Provincial Council, in which he sat until its abolition, in 1876. He was the second Superintendent of the province, and held office in 1862–3: and afterwards he was for ten or twelve years Speaker of the Council. Captain Baillie was appointed to the Legislative Council in 1861, and is now (1905) its senior member. He held the position of Chairman of Committies for about thirty yours. Captain Baillie was a member of the Marlborough Education Board for more than twenty years. In the year 1854, he married a daughter of Major Grensill. Commissary of Ordnance in the Imperial Service, and has two daughters and three sons.