The Governor of Tristan de Cunha is the representative of the

monarch A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority and power i ...

Tristan da Cunha Tristan da Cunha (), colloquially Tristan, is a remote group of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying approximately from Cape Town in South Africa, from Saint Helena a ...

, a constituent part of the British Overseas Territory of

Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha is a British Overseas Territory located in the South Atlantic and consisting of the island of Saint Helena, Ascension Island and the archipelago of Tristan da Cunha including Gough Island. Its name wa ...

. The governor is appointed by the monarch on the advice of the British government. The role of the governor is to act as the ''

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...

head of state A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and l ...

. Prior to 2009 Tristan de Cunha was a dependency of Saint Helena and therefore directly represented by the

Governor of Saint Helena The Governor of Saint Helena is the representative of the British monarch in the United Kingdom's overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. The Governor is appointed by the monarch on the official advice of His Majesty ...

. The ''St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Constitution Order 2009'' made Saint Helena, Ascension Island, and

equal constituent parts of the territory with their own governments and established the position of Governor of Tristan da Cunha. Per Section 208 of the Constitution Order the person appointed as

is ''ex officio'' Governor of Tristan da Cunha. However, as Tristan da Cunha is away from Saint Helena, an Administrator of Tristan da Cunha is appointed to act as the Governor's representative on the Island. This arrangement predates the current constitutional structure and the first Administrator was appointed in the 1940s. Previously the Administrator also acted as the local

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judic ...

, but the appointment is to be transferred to a non-member of the executive or legislative branches of government.

History

The first Administrator, appointed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, was Surgeon Lieutenant Commander E. J. S. Woolley, the head of the 16-man British naval garrison on the island which was charged with monitoring German submarines and intercepting their communications. The first appointee to the post was Sir Hugh Elliott in 1949, when commercial development began of the local crayfish catch, for export markets. There was then no currency on Tristan da Cunha: local trade was by barter. Elliott's activities included the island's first postal service and discovery of a new species of flea, which he named for his wife Elizabeth. The Governor has his own flag, a

Union Jack The Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. Although no law has been passed making the Union Flag the official national flag of the United Kingdom, it has effectively become such through precedent. ...

with the addition of the territory's coat of arms in the centre of the flag.

List of Administrators

The following is a complete list of Administrators of Tristan da Cunha:

List of Governors

Prior to 2009 Tristan da Cunha was a dependency of Saint Helena and therefore directly represented by the

. * 2009 – Andrew Gurr * 2011 – Mark Andrew Capes * 2016 – Lisa Honan * 2019 – Dr

Philip Rushbrook Philip Edward Rushbrook is a British diplomat who served as Governor of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha from 2019 to 2022. He was inaugurated on 11 May 2019 and became the 66th Governor of Saint Helena and the 69th of Saint Helena ...

* 2022 – Nigel Phillips

References

External links

Tristan da Cunha Administrator
– Tristan da Cunha Government & Tristan da Cunha Association {{British dependencies governors