Sharyn cairns biography of william

British colonial administrator

Sir William Wellington Cairns, KCMG (3 March - 9 June ) was a British colonial administrator. He was the Governor of Queensland and the Governor of Trinidad.

Early life

Cairns was born in Belfast, Ireland on 3 March (as indicated on his grave stone). His parents were William Cairns, a property owner at Cultra, County Down and was a captain in the 14th Regiment, and his second marriage Matilda Beggs, daughter of Francis Beggs of the Grange, Malahide.^[1]

Trinidad and Australia

He served in various senior colonial civil service posts in the British Empire including Trinidad,^[2][3] moving due to health issues,^[4] before being appointed Governor of Queensland in January He held the post for two years before becoming the Administrator of South Australia in ^[5] Cairns was given a CMG in , followed by a knighthood in ^[6]

Later reflections of his contributions to colonial