Page:Notable South Australians.djvu/17

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Notable South Australians.

Sir Wm. Cleaver Francis Robinson, K.C.M.G.,

WHO was appointed the Queen's representative in South Australia, arrived in Adelaide on February 19th, 1883. He is the fourth son of the late Admiral Hercules Robinson, of Rosmead, County Westmeath, Ireland, and a brother of that most popular of Australian Governors, Right Hon. Sir Hercules Robinson, G.C.M.G. He first entered official life in 1855 as Private Secretary to Sir Hercules Robinson, then Governor of St. Kitts, and accepted the like office at Hongkong on his brother's removal to the Chinese empire. Five years after, in 1862, he received the appointment of President of Montserrat, in the Antilles, and entered upon his duties in that flourishing locality. At the close of 1865 he was made Administrator of the Government of Dominica, and continued in that office for nine or ten months. In 1866 he was appointed Governor of the Falkland Isles, and in 1870 of Prince Edward's Island, where he remained three years, and at the end of his term of office was nominated C.M.G. In 1874 he was nominated to the government of the Leeward Islands, but subsequently accepted instead the Government of Western Australia, After successful administration of affairs in that settlement, he went to the Straits Settlements to succed Sir W. F. D. Jervois, who had received directions to proceed to Australia and report upon colonial fortifications. Before entering upon this new sphere of duty he was created a K.C.M.G., and whilst still Governor of the Straits Settlement, was entrusted with