The Arrival And Subsequent Death of Lady Carter At Lagos

The late Lady Carter

General View of Lagos

From The Illustrated London News. January 19th 1895



After the reception accorded to the wife of the Governor on her arrival to Lagos it came as a shock when the news that Lady Carter died on January 13th 1895.

The Event had cast a gloom over the entire colony, which had but a few days before welcomed her with enthusiasm.

Her Ladyship reached Lagos in the Axim on December 6th when the whole city turned out to do her honour. The streets ( as shown in the pictures) were decorated, and Sir Gilbert and Lady Carter were greeted everywhere with applause. From eight o'clock in the morning the Marina was thronged with gay crowds of sightseers on the outlook for the carriage which would convey Lady Carter to Government House. In the harbour her Majesty's Colonial yacht,Margaret and all the mercantile steamers were docked with flags, and carried palm branches on their mastheads. At ten o'clock two guns announced that the steam tender Kwarra had started from the Axim with her Ladyship on board. Eighteen hundred school children sang " Rule Britannia" on the landing -stage as soon as his Excellency appeared escorting his wife from the steamer. A flourish of trumpets, the music of massed bands, also denoted the arrival of the Governors wife. A bouquet was presented to Lady Carter by Miss Lawson, a great - grand daughter of the late Bishop Crowther. A ball was given in her Ladyships honour on December 21st, and five days later she was taken ill. 

                                        Triumph Arch decorated for the arrival of Lady Carter

                                                      Lady Carter Landing in Lagos

Sympathy must be extended towards the Governor of Lagos in his sudden bereavement, and towards the West African Colony which mourns the loss of its chief leader of society.

Sir Gilbert T. Carter K. C. M. G., has been Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Lagos since 1891. The son of a sailor, he entered the Royal Navy 30 years ago and served in the Government yacht Sherbro on the West African coast in 1870 and during the Ashantee War. Retiring in 1875, he became private secretary to the Governor of the Leeward Isles, a position he held till 1879, when he was appointed Treasurer of the Gold Coast and Gambia. He was administrator of The Gambia from 1888 to 1891. In the following year he was charged with the delicate duty of conducting a mission to the Yorubas, on the termination of which he was created K. C. M. G for "valuable and important services as Governor of Lagos". Lady Carter whom he married in 1874, was Miss Susan Laura Hocker, daughter of Lieutenant -Colonel Edward Hocker, C.B