William Robinson (Governor of Western Australia)

Sir William Cleaver Francis Robinson, GCMG (* January 14, 1834 in Rosmead House, County Westmeath, Ireland; † May 2, 1897 in London) was a British colonial official. He was governor of the Falkland Islands, the Straits Settlements, from Western Australia and South Australia, as well as Vice- Governor of the Canadian province of Prince Edward Iceland.

Biography

Robinson was the fifth son of Admiral Hercules Robinson. In 1855 he entered the service of the Colonial Office, first as private secretary to his older brother Hercules Robinson, 1st Baron Rosmead, for whom he worked in St. Kitts and Hong Kong. In 1862 he married and became Administrator of Montserrat. In 1866 he took his first governorship in the Falkland Islands. Four years later, made ​​the appointment as governor of Prince Edward Iceland and the elevation to the peerage. The island was then still a colony in British North America, which joined in 1873 as the seventh province of the Canadian Confederation. Robinson remained another year there, which meant that he held the office of Lieutenant Governor for this period.

1874 Robinson was the first time the governorship in the colony of Western Australia awarded. Its main task was to reject demands for self-government, as the colony of the Colonial Office 's view, to be ready yet. In 1877 he was appointed Governor of the Straits Settlements, three years later, he returned to his post in Western Australia. For six years, from 1883 to 1889, Robinson was governor of the colony South Australia. He was then appointed for the third time Governor of Western Australia, to serve with the task, the introduction of a parliamentary system of government this time. In 1895 he retired, he spent his last years in London.