OUR NEW GOVERNOR.

Observer, Volume 5, Issue 117, 9 December 1882, Page 202

OUR NEW GOVERNOR.

<*. __ The latest cable despatches from Adelaide announce that His Excellency Sir William Jervois, of whom we give an enlarged engraving in this issue, has received a telegram from Earl Kimberley, Secretary of State for the colonies, desireing him to enter upon his duties as Governor of New Zealand in January next. We find the following biography in "Men of the Time" : — Jervois, Lieut.-CoL, Sir William Francis Drummond, C.8., eldest son of the late* Q-eneral Jervois, K.H., Colonel of the 70th Regiment, ■was born at Covves, Isle of Wight, in 1821, and having passed at Woolwich, entered the Royal Engineers in 1839. Having completed his usual course of study at Chatham, he was ordered to the Cape of Gl-ood Hope in 1811, and was actively employed in that colony for upwards of seven year 3 in various capacities. In 1842 he acted as bi'igade major in an expedition against the Boers, and during the three following years was professionally engaged at various frontier stations, making roads, building bridges, and establishing military posts. In 1845, having been appointed Acting Adjutant to the Royal Engineers, he accompanied the Chief Engineer over the whole frontier of the Cape Colony and the settlement of Natal, and in the early part of 1846 he was major of the brigade to the garrison of Cape Town, until the arrival of Sir H. Pottinger as governor, and Sir Or. Berkeley as commander-in-chief, with whom he proceeded to the frontier against the Kaffirs. During the .Kaffir war he made a military survey and map o£ Kaffraria, a work of great difficulty ably executed. From 1848 till 1852 he commanded a company of Sappers at Woolwich and Chatham ; in the latter year wag ordered to the island of Alclerney, for the purpose of designing plans for the fortifications, and the superintendence of their execution, and in 1854 was promoted to ths rank of m,ijor. In 1855 Major Jervois was transferred to the London district, as Commanding Royal Engineer, and was nominated by Lord Panmm*e a member of a Committee on Barrack Accomodation, whose labours contributed mieh to the improvements which Jfeavo of late ears been effected in the conatructiorrof barracks,

as well as in the sanitary condition of our troops. In 1856 he was appointed to the post of Assistant Inspector-General of Fortifications under Sir John Burgoyne, and on the appointment of a Eoyal Commission to report upon the defences of the country, he was selected by the Governmeut to be secretary. He was a member of the Special Committee on the Application of Iron to Ships and Fortifications. In 1861 he attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, in 1862 was appointed Deputy Director of Fortifications under .Sir John Bnrgoyne, and in 1863 was nominated a Companion of the Bath, and was sent on a special mission to report on the Defences of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, on which occasion he visited the fortifications at the principal ports on the seaboard of the United States. In 1864- he was again sent on a special naission to Canada to confer with the Canadian Government on the question of the defence of that province. On his return to England his report was laid before Parliament, and the Imperial G-overnment under';-" I',1 ', to carry cut the 1 3fp;, r? o S Quebec on the plan recommended by im. In' addition to his post at the War Office, olonel Jervois was Secretary to the Permanent efence Commmittee, under the presidency of le Duke of Cambridge. He was created a night Commander of the Order of St. Michael id George in 1874, and was appointed Governor : the Straits Settlements April 7, 1875. The 1 tter post he held till June, 1877, when he was ppointed Governor of South Australia. He was jminated a G.C.M.G. in 1878.