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Benjamin Pine
Government House:
Sir Benjamin Pine has an odd claim to fame. He was the Governor who never took up office.
He was appointed under Letters Patent dated 30 July 1868 and became Western Australia’s eighth Governor despite never arriving, nor taking the Oath of Office.
Governor Pine was a career officer of the Colonial Service. Before his Western Australia appointment, he had already served 27 years in the colonies – successively in West Africa, Natal, and then the West Indies. He earned himself a good reputation in these postings.
Wikipedia:
On 30 July 1868, Pine was appointed by letters patent to the position of Governor of Western Australia. Shortly afterwards, however, a vacancy occurred for the position of Governor of the Leeward Islands, and it was decided that he should fill that position instead. He never arrived in Western Australia, and six months passed before the colony received news that he would not be coming. ...
The person who actually administered the colony during the period of Pine's formal tenure (2 November 1868–29 September 1869) was Lieut. Col. John Bruce.
References and Links
Burt, Sir Francis 1996, 'Our Reluctant Governor: Sir Benjamin Pine, Knight', Early Days, 11, 2: 141–154, with an introduction by John Herbert Melville Honniball.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 5 April, 2022 and hosted at freotopia.org/people/pinebenjamin.html (it was last updated on 15 March, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.