The reverse has a printed black shield of Victoria and there is also a partially legible reception postmark of London (Figure 2).
Sir Matthew Nathan, governor, soldier and chancellor, was born on 3 January 1862 at Paddington, London, second son of Jewish parents Jonah Nathan, businessman, and his second wife Miriam. After private tuition, in 1878-80 he studied with distinction at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and in 1882 left the School of Military Engineering, Chatham, as lieutenant, Royal Engineers. He served in Sierra Leone and Egypt (1883-87) and India and Burma (1887-90). From 1895 he was secretary of the Colonial Defence Committee (as shown in his address on this cover), and was promoted major in 1898.
Acting governor of Sierra Leone in 1899, Nathan became Governor of the Gold Coast (1900-04), and this was the first appointment of a person of the Jewish faith to hold a British Colonial Governship. This was followed by his appointment to the Governor of Hong Kong (1904-07) and Natal (1907-09). He was appointed C.M.G. (1899), K.C.M.G. (1902) and G.C.M.G. (1908), and promoted lieutenant-colonel (1908). Having fallen out of favour with the Colonial Office, he became secretary of the British Post Office in 1909, secretary of the Board of Inland Revenue in 1911, then under-secretary for Ireland in 1914. Blamed for failing to detect the signs of the impending revolution in 1916, he reassured his chief as late as 14 April that 'all was well in Ireland', he resigned two days after the Easter rising. He was first secretary of the pensions ministry in 1917, but he was removed by Lloyd George to the secretaryship of a commission into higher wages for women. Nathan never married, but conducted discreet affaires with several women.
Nathan accepted the position of Governor of Queensland from 3 December 1920 and 17 September 1925. Nathan's term was relatively free of political crises, although he was petitioned to recommend refusal of royal assent to the bill to abolish the Legislative Council. Convinced of the absence of 'any very strong or widespread feeling in the country against this assent', he recommended it on 1 December 1921. In November 1921, Premier E.G. Theodore's determination to implement Labor policy had placed Nathan in a position of sympathy with the senior judiciary affected by the judges retirement bill, but also in the constitutional position of refusing to refer the bill for royal assent. Relations were also somewhat strained by Theodore's legislation for proxy voting in the Legislative Assembly. Disapproving of Theodore's manipulation of the constitution, in December 1921 Nathan suspected that his next move would be an attempt to abolish governorships, but this Theodore denied at the time.
Despite a slight decline in health, Nathan travelled extensively within Queensland, visited the southern States in 1922 and spoke willingly and at length on public occasions. He appears to have gained general public approval, despite the earlier reservations of those Irish Catholics who retained painful memories of 1916. He actively supported the boy scout and girl guide movements, sought to promote British immigration to Queensland and interested himself in study of the Great Barrier Reef, as well as local history and the origin of place names in Queensland. He was chancellor of the University of Queensland in 1922-26 and was awarded an honorary LL.D. in 1925.
Nathan left Queensland in September 1925. He was involved from 1922 in the planning, organization and financing of the British Great Barrier Reef expedition (1928-29), he was chairman of sub-committees of the Civil Research Committee and the Economic Advisory Council. In 1927-28 he advised on the Ceylon Constitution. He retired to his house at West Coker, Somerset, and was high sheriff of the county to 1934. Nathan died at West Coker on 18 April 1939 and was buried in the Jewish cemetery at Willesden, London. Portion of his library was donated to the John Oxley Library, Brisbane, after World War II. Several places have been named after Matthew Nathan, Nathan Road in Hong Kong, Nathan and Nathan Heights in Brisbane and Nathan Street in the Canberra suburb of Deakin. A picture of Matthew Nathan is seen in Figure 3.
Portion of the text on Matthew Nathan was derived from the Australian Dictionary of Biography.
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