Alan Burns (governor)

Sir Alan Cuthbert Maxwell Burns GCMG ( born November 9, 1887 in Basseterre, † 29 September 1980 in London ) was a British colonial administrator and governor.

Biography

Burns was one of four children of the administrator of St. Christopher -Nevis - Anguilla James Patrick Burns and his wife Agnes Zulma Delisle. His father died already in 1896. Burns visited in 1901, the St. Edmund 's College, Old Hall Green, Hertfordshire. 1914 his mother died.

He served as a member of the British colonial service in different uses, from 1905 to 1912 in the Leeward Islands, then to 1924 in Nigeria, 1927 Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, and 1929 was as colonial secretary in the Bahamas and then as deputy secretary until 1934 again in Nigeria. In 1914 he married Kathleen Fitzpatrick Hardtman, with whom he had shared the daughters Barbara and Benedicta.

From November 2nd 1934 to February 24, 1939, he was governor of Belize and was raised in 1936 for Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George. From 1942 until 18 December 1943, he was governor of Nigeria and also served from June 29, 1942 as Governor of the Gold Coast. On August 2, 1947, he handed over this office to George Ernest London and was until 1956 Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom in the UN Trusteeship Council.

In 1942 he was appointed Knight of the Order of Malta and in 1946 Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George. He died in 1980 in London's Westminster Hospital.