The Regulating Act of 1773 created the office with the title of Governor-General of Presidency of Fort William, or Governor-General of Bengal to be appointed by the Court of Directors of the East India Company (EIC). The Court of Directors assigned a Council of Four (based in India) to assist the Governor-General, and the decision of the council was binding on the Governor-General from 1773–1784.
The charter Act 1833 re-designated the office with the title of Governor-General of India. William Bentinck was the first to be designated as the Governor-general of India in 1833.
After the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the company rule was brought to an end, but the British India along with princely states came under the direct rule of the British Crown. The Government of India Act 1858 created the office of Secretary of State for India in 1858 to oversee the affairs of India, which was advised by a new Council of India with 15 members (based in London). The existing Council of Four was formally renamed as the Council of Governor-General of India or Executive Council of India. The Council of India was later abolished by Government of India Act 1935.
Following the adoption of the Government of India Act of 1858, the Governor-General representing the Crown became known as the Viceroy. The designation 'Viceroy', although it was most frequently used in ordinary parlance, had no statutory authority, and was never employed by Parliament. Although the Proclamation of 1858 announcing the assumption of the government of India by the Crown referred to Lord Canning as "first Viceroy and Governor-General", none of the Warrants appointing his successors referred to them as 'Viceroys', and the title, which was frequently used in Warrants dealing with precedence and in public notifications, was one of ceremonies used in connection with the state and social functions of the Sovereign's representative. The Governor-General continued to be the sole representative of the Crown, and the Government of India continued to be vested in the appointments of Governor-General of India which were made by the British Crown upon the advice of Secretary of State for India. The office of Governor-General continued to exist as a ceremonial post in each of the new dominions of India and Pakistan, until they adopted republican constitutions in 1950 and 1956 respectively.
List of governors-general
Before 1773 The Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal) was named as Governor of Bengal, which was in existence from 1757 to 1772. For the list of Governors of Bengal see List of governors of Bengal.
Fort William (Bengal) and India, 1600–1857
Governor-General (lifespan) |
Term of office | Notable events | |
---|---|---|---|
Appointed by Court of Directors of the East India Company | |||
Governors-General of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), 1773–1833 | |||
Warren Hastings (1732–1818) |
20 October 1773 |
8 February 1785 |
|
John Macpherson, 1st Baronet (acting) (1745–1821) |
8 February 1785 |
12 September 1786 |
|
The Earl Cornwallis (1738–1805) |
12 September 1786 |
28 October 1793 |
|
John Shore (1751–1834) |
28 October 1793 |
18 March 1798 |
|
Lt. Gen Alured Clarke (acting) (1744–1832) |
18 March 1798 |
18 May 1798 |
|
Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley (1760–1842) |
18 May 1798 |
30 July 1805 |
|
Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis (1738–1805) |
30 July 1805 |
5 October 1805 |
|
George Barlow, 1st Baronet (acting) (1762–1847) |
10 October 1805 |
31 July 1807 |
|
Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, Lord Minto (1751–1814) |
31 July 1807 |
4 October 1813 |
|
Francis Rawdon-Hastings (1754–1826) |
4 October 1813 |
9 January 1823 |
|
John Adam (acting) (1779–1825) |
9 January 1823 |
1 August 1823 |
|
William Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst (1773–1857) |
1 August 1823 |
13 March 1828 |
|
William Butterworth Bayley (acting) (1782–1860) |
13 March 1828 |
4 July 1828 |
|
Governors-General of India, 1833–1858 | |||
Lord William Bentinck (1774–1839) |
4 July 1828 |
20 March 1835 |
|
Charles Metcalfe, Baronet (acting) (1785–1846) |
20 March 1835 |
4 March 1836 |
|
George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland (1784–1849) |
4 March 1836 |
28 February 1842 |
|
Edward Law, Lord Ellenborough (1790–1871) |
28 February 1842 |
June 1844 |
|
William Wilberforce Bird (acting) (1784–1857) |
June 1844 |
23 July 1844 |
|
Henry Hardinge (1785–1856) |
23 July 1844 |
12 January 1848 |
|
James Broun-Ramsay, Earl of Dalhousie (1812–1860) |
12 January 1848 |
28 February 1856 |
|
Charles Canning, Viscount Canning (1812–1862) |
28 February 1856 |
31 October 1858 |
|
Governors-General and Viceroys of India and Governors-General of the Dominion of India, 1858–1950
Governor-General or Viceroy (lifespan) |
Term of office | Notable events | Secretary of State for India | Prime Minister | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Governors-General and Viceroys of India, 1858–1947 | |||||
Appointed by Queen Victoria (1837–1901) | |||||
Charles Canning, Viscount Canning (1812–1862) |
1 November 1858 |
21 March 1862 |
|
||
James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin (1811–1863) |
21 March 1862 |
20 November 1863 |
|
Charles Wood | Viscount Palmerston |
Robert Napier (acting) (1810–1890) |
21 November 1863 |
2 December 1863 |
|||
William Denison (acting) (1804–1871) |
2 December 1863 |
12 January 1864 |
|||
John Lawrence, Baronet (1811–1879) |
12 January 1864 |
12 January 1869 |
|
||
Richard Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo (1822–1872) |
12 January 1869 |
8 February 1872 |
|
George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll | William Ewart Gladstone |
John Strachey (acting) (1823–1907) |
9 February 1872 |
23 February 1872 |
|||
Francis Napier, 10th Lord Napier (acting) (1819–1898) |
24 February 1872 |
3 May 1872 |
|||
Thomas Baring, Lord Northbrook (1826–1904) |
3 May 1872 |
12 April 1876 |
|
||
Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton (1831–1891) |
12 April 1876 |
8 June 1880 |
|
||
George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon (1827–1909) |
8 June 1880 |
13 December 1884 |
|
||
Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, Earl of Dufferin (1826–1902) |
13 December 1884 |
10 December 1888 |
|
||
Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne (1845–1927) |
10 December 1888 |
21 January 1894 |
|
||
Victor Bruce, 9th Earl of Elgin (1849–1917) |
21 January 1894 |
6 January 1899 |
|
||
George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston (1859–1925) |
6 January 1899 |
18 November 1905 |
|
||
Appointed by King Edward VII (1901–1910) | |||||
Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto (1845–1914) |
18 November 1905 |
23 November 1910 |
|
||
Appointed by King George V (1910–1936) | |||||
Charles Hardinge, 1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst (1858–1944) |
23 November 1910 |
4 April 1916 |
|
||
Frederic Thesiger, 1st Viscount Chelmsford (1868–1933) |
4 April 1916 |
2 April 1921 |
|
||
Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading (1860–1935) |
2 April 1921 |
3 April 1926 |
|
||
E. F. L. Wood, Lord Irwin (1881–1959) |
3 April 1926 |
18 April 1931 |
|
||
George Goschen, 2nd Viscount Goschen (acting) (1866–1952) |
29 June 1929 |
11 November 1929 | |||
Freeman Freeman-Thomas, Earl of Willingdon (1866–1941) |
18 April 1931 |
18 April 1936 |
|
||
Appointed by King Edward VIII (1936) | |||||
Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow (1887–1952) |
18 April 1936 |
1 October 1943 |
|
||
Appointed by King George VI (1936–1947) (as Emperor of India) | |||||
Archibald Wavell, Viscount Wavell (1883–1950) |
1 October 1943 |
21 February 1947 |
|
||
Louis Mountbatten, Viscount Mountbatten of Burma (1900–1979) |
21 February 1947 |
15 August 1947 |
|
||
Governor-General (birth–death) |
Term of office | Notable events | Prime Minister | ||
Governors-General of the Dominion of India, 1947–1950 | |||||
Appointed by King George VI (1947–1950) (as King of India) | |||||
Louis Mountbatten, Viscount Mountbatten of Burma (1900–1979) |
15 August 1947 |
21 June 1948 |
|
||
Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (1878–1972) |
21 June 1948 |
26 January 1950 |
|
Timeline and Tenure
See also
- List of governors of Bengal Presidency
- Council of India
- Secretary of State for India
- List of presidents of India
- Governor-general
Notes
- Originally joined on 28 April 1772.
- Earl Cornwallis from 1762; created Marquess Cornwallis (1792).
- Created Marquess Wellesley (1799).
- Earl of Moira prior to being created Marquess of Hastings in 1816.
- Created Earl Amherst in 1826.
- Created Earl of Auckland in 1839.
- Created Viscount Hardinge in 1846.
- Created Marquess of Dalhousie 1849.
- ^ Created Earl Canning 1859.
- Oliver Russell, 2nd Baron Ampthill was acting Governor-General in 1904.
- Created Earl Mountbatten of Burma on 28 October 1947.
Citations
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- https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/33561/1/11010320.pdf
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