John Pope Hennessy, 'Colonial Government'

Carlo Pellegrini ('Ape') renders John Pope Hennessy — Irish-born colonial administrator and Governor of the Gold Coast, Barbados, and Hong Kong — as a compact, self-satisfied figure in a dark frock coat, arms folded, chin lifted, smiling sideways in profile. The exaggerated cranium and undersized legs are standard Pellegrini devices. The caption, 'Colonial Government,' is pointed: Hennessy was chronically controversial for his sympathy toward colonised peoples — championing African rights on the Gold Coast, defending Chinese residents in Hong Kong — which infuriated the Colonial Office and British settlers alike. The plate, numbered Men of the Day No. 100, presents him as smugly assured, the joke being that London regarded his humanitarian instincts as governmental incompetence.