The Governor of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands was the colonial head of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands civil service from 1892 until 1979.
The post was established in 1892 with the title 'Resident Commissioner' by Governor of Fiji John Bates Thurston after the islands were made a British protectorate, having previously been under the supervision of the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific.David P. Henige (1970) Colonial governors from the Fifteenth Century to the Present, p119Barrie Macdonald (1971) Policy and Practice in an Atoll Territory: British Rule in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, 1892-1970, Canberra, ANU The Commissioner initially had jurisdiction over only the Ellice Islands. Charles Richard Swayne was appointed as the first Commissioner, arriving in the islands the same year.
In 1893 the responsibilities of Resident were extended to cover the Gilbert Islands,Michael Ravell Walsh (2020) A History of Kiribati: From the Earliest Times to the 40th Anniversary of the Republic, pp170–171. with the title becoming Resident Commissioner of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. Swayne arrived in the islands in October 1893. His salary was £500 a year, which was covered by local revenue.
In 1895, the headquarters of the protectorate were established in Tarawa before being moved to Ocean Island in 1908, which remained the headquarters until World War II and the Japanese occupation of the Gilbert Islands. At the beginning of the Pacific War, Cyril George Fox Cartwright was acting as Resident Commissioner of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony on Ocean Island from December 1941 to August 1942. He was acting on behalf of Vivian Fox-Strangways, who had been appointed as Resident Commissioner, but because of the Pacific War, Fox-Strangways had been seconded into the British Army with the rank of major and was located on Tulagi in the British Solomon Islands. Following the occupation of Ocean Island by the Japanese forces on 26 August 1942, Fox-Strangways established his office and headquarters on Funafuti in the Ellice Islands. On 22 November 1943 Fox-Strangways landed on Betio islet at the end of Battle of Tarawa, and began to establish the administrative centre of the colony on Tarawa, first on Betio islet and subsequently on Bairiki islet.Maude, H. E., & Doran, E., Jr. (1966). The precedence of Tarawa Atoll. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 56, 269-289. The provisional headquarters of the colony stayed in Funafuti until 1946 and the rebuilding of Tarawa.
The Gilbert Islands and Ellice Islands became separate colonies in 1976, but remained under a single governor. After the independence of Tuvalu (Ellice Islands) in 1978, the post was renamed the Governor of the Gilbert Islands until the independence of Kiribati the following year.
List of governors TermNameResident Commissioner1892–1895Charles Richard Swayne1895–1909William Telfer Campbell1909–1913John Quayle-Dickson1913–1919Edward Carlyon Eliot1919–1922Arthur Grimble (acting)1922–1925Herbert Reginald McClure1925–1933Arthur Grimble1933–1938Jack Barley1938–1939Ronald Garvey (acting)1939–1941Cyril Cartwright (acting)1941–1946Vivian Fox-Strangways1946–1949Henry Evans Maude1949–1952John Peel1952–1961Michael Bernacchi1961–1969Val Andersen1970–1972John Osbaldiston FieldGovernor of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands1972–1973John Osbaldiston Field1973–1978John Hilary SmithGovernor of the Gilbert Islands1978–1979Reginald James WallaceSources: Henige, MacDonald.
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