Diamantina Roma

On the subject of Diamantina Roma (Lady Diamantina Bowen), The Governor-General of Australia, Ms.Quentin Bryce, AC, formerly Governor of Queensland once quoted in a speech from a poem of mine.

Here is the full version of the poem:

Diamantina Roma and the Postings of Governor Bowen

That selfish brute Bowen

Got Corfu, then Brisbane,

New Zealand and Melbourne !

Missed out on New South Wales !

Twenty years down under,

Sir Gorgeous Figginson Blowing+,

Too long for Diamantina,

A lady of  delicate health.

Ill on the day of the Ball.

Men of the toga, from Oxford

(Consolidate ! Assimilate!) 

Cared little, if at all.

Diamantina of the isles of Greece,

Hosting endless boring dinners

And receptions great and small,

You always yearned for perfect peace

Amongst the Corfu olive groves.

I know when  it  began to pall. 

+Note. Bowen was hated by Edward Lear, who referred to him in letters as "brute", "beast" and as "Sir Gorgeous Figginson Blowing" (see Susan Hyman, "Edward Lear in the Levant", note p.20)


More information on Contessa Diamantina Roma, Lady Bowen

Postcript on Lear and Bowen in A Blog of Bosh