3-057-070 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Lord Augustus Loftus, Governor of New South Wales, 1880. Loftus started his diplomatic career in 1837 as attaché in Berlin. In 1848 he accompanied Sir Stratford Canning on visits to the royal courts of Berlin, Vienna, Munich and Athens just before the outbreaks of the 1848 revolutions that shook Europe. He rose through the ranks holding posts in Stuttgart, Berlin and Vienna. In 1862 he was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the King of Prussia. In 1866 he was made Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath. He took a leading role in the negotiations that ended in the Treaty of Berlin of 1878. In 1879 he was appointed Governor of New South Wales.