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Lieutenant Governor of Jersey
Flag of the Lieutenant Governor of Jersey.svg
Flag of the lieutenant governor of Jersey
Coat of Arms of Jersey.svg
Coat of arms of Jersey
HMS Queen Elizabeth Captain Kyd (cropped).jpg
Incumbent
Vice-Admiral Jerry Kyd

since 8 October 2022
Style His Excellency
Residence Government House
Appointer Monarchy of the United Kingdom
Term length Five years
Formation 1502
First holder Sir Hugh Vaughan
(as Governor of Jersey)

The lieutenant governor of Jersey (Jèrriais: Gouvèrneux d'Jèrri, "Governor of Jersey"), properly styled the lieutenant-governor of Jersey (French: Lieutenant-Gouverneur de Jersey), is the representative of the British monarch in the Bailiwick of Jersey, a dependency of the British Crown.

Presently, there is no governor of Jersey (French: Gouverneur de Jersey), the role having devolved its responsibilities onto the lieutenant governors and then been discontinued in 1854. The position of lieutenant governor is now itself largely ceremonial, with day-to-day responsibility over most functions of government overseen by the Chief Minister of Jersey and judicial and certain other official matters overseen by the Bailiff of Jersey.

Duties

Jour d'la Libéthâtion Jèrri 9 d'Mai 2010 07
The Bailiff greeting Lt Governor Andrew Ridgway in the Royal Square of St Helier on Liberation Day, 2010.

The lieutenant governor serves as the de facto head of state in Jersey, performing various ceremonial functions and liaising between the Governments of Jersey and the United Kingdom. The lieutenant governor also exercises certain executive functions relating broadly to citizenship, including involvement with passports, deportation, and nationality. Jersey passports are British passports issued on behalf of the lieutenant governor, in the exercise of the royal prerogative, through the Passport Office which the States fund and from which the States retain any revenue generated. Deportation from Jersey is formally ordered by the lieutenant governor. Certificates of naturalization as a British citizen are issued by the lieutenant governor.

Ex officio, the lieutenant governor is a member of the States of Jersey but may not vote and, by convention, speaks in the Chamber only on appointment and on departure from post.

History

Jean Hammond et William Sherbrooke Ramsay Norcott 1873
Bailiff Jean Hammond greeting Lt Governor William Norcott in an 1873 caricature.
Jour d'la Libéthâtion Jèrri 9 d'Mai 2010 08
Lt Governor Ridgway on Liberation Day, 2010

The unusual position of the lieutenant governor is a product of the unusual situation created when the once-Viking dukes of Normandy, vassals of the kings of France, became kings of England and subsequently claimed the French throne itself. Despite the loss of Normandy and failure of the First and main Hundred Years' Wars, the situation caused the terms of the 1259 Treaty of Paris to be generally maintained and the Channel Islands were organized separately from the Kingdom of England and its successor states and held directly under the Crown.

From 933, the dukes of Normandy and then kings of England held the islands directly. Beginning with Prince John on 8 February 1198, they began to be delegated to a series of princes and royal favourites like Peter de Preaux as feudal lords of the isles (Latin: dominus insularum; French: seigneur des îles). Actual administrative control was separately placed with a warden of the isles (custos insularum; gardien des îles), at first typically a member of the king's household knights or the royal council. This post was given wide autonomy in command and judgment alongside 12 sworn coroners (coronatores juratos) charged to preserve and clarify the local traditions, obligations, and freedoms and some of its holders were greatly enriched by the provision of terra Normannorum, lands seized from previous owners obliged to swear fealty to the Capetian king of France to preserve their other holdings on the Continent. The wardens were initially appointed by the islands' lords but, particularly under the long and neglectful rule of Edward I's favourite Otto de Grandson, some were appointed directly by the king to ensure the islands' allegiance and protection during times of hostility with France. This became standard after the lordship became hereditary in the line of Henry Beauchamp and then ceased to be awarded upon the line's extinguishment. As early as 1201, the lords and wardens were both sometimes described as the bailiff of the islands (ballivus insularum; bailli des îles), but this gradually became a separate position held by a separate agent.

Following the capture of Mont Orgueil and Jersey's occupation by the French from 1461–1468 owing to the support of Pierre de Brézé, seneschal of Normandy, to the Lancastrian cause of his cousin Margaret of Anjou during the Wars of the Roses, greater attention was paid to the islands' organisation and defense. Upon its reconquest by Richard Harliston, he was named captain of the isles (capitaine des îles) or captain-in-chief (capitaine en chef). Shortly thereafter in 1473, the previous captains or subwardens (subcustos) at Jersey and Guernsey were replaced by separate captains or governors (gouverneur) overseeing the local garrisons. Jurisdictional friction with the islands' bailiffs culminated in legal disputes between the captain John Peyton and the bailiff Jean Hérault, who was attempting to usurp the title of "governor". A series of rulings by the Privy Council from 1616 to 1618 determined that Jersey's captain would be formally styled its governor but largely restricted to military matters, while the bailiff would exercise most civil and judicial responsibilities without his oversight; Guernsey's officials followed suit shortly thereafter.

After the Stuart Restoration, King Charles II—who had previously escaped to France via Jersey—rewarded the island with the power to levy customs duties. The post of governor of Jersey thereafter became a sinecure chiefly used for its incomes, with its responsibilities discharged after 1806 by lieutenant governors. Following the long and entirely absent "service" of William Beresford as governor, the post was left vacant. Since his death in 1856, the Crown has been formally and constitutionally represented in Jersey by lieutenant governors. The lieutenant governors have gradually lost various powers of their office. Jersey's custom duties—previously levied by an assembly consisting of the governor, bailiff, and jurats—has been controlled by the States of Jersey since 1921, removing most control over the island's finances by the lieutenant governor; the States of Jersey Law 2005 abolished the lieutenant governor's previous ability to veto resolutions of the States; and the recommendation of future lieutenant governors was announced in 2010 to be the responsibility of a panel on Jersey rather than of the ministers of the United Kingdom.

List of governors of Jersey

Governors have been:

Date Governor
1470–1483 Richard Harliston (Captain in Chief of Jersey)
1486–1494 Matthew Baker
1494–1500 Thomas Overay
1500–1502 Jean Lempriere
1502–1531 Sir Hugh Vaughan (first to be known as Governor)
1532–1534 Sir Anthony Ughtred
1534–1536 Sir Arthur Darcy
1536–1537 Sir Thomas Vaux, Lord Vaux
1537–1550 Sir Edward Seymour
1550–1574 Sir Hugh Paulet
1547–1590 Sir Amyas Paulet
1590–1600 Sir Anthony Paulet
1600–1603 Sir Walter Raleigh
1603–1630 Sir John Peyton
1631–1643 Sir Thomas Jermyn
1644–1651 Sir Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of St Albans
1651–1654 Colonel James Heane
1655–1659 Colonel Robert Gibbon
1659–1660 Colonel John Mason
1660 Colonel Carew Raleigh
1660–1665 Sir Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of St Albans
1665–1679 Sir Thomas Morgan, 1st Baronet
1679–1684 Sir John Lanier
1684–1703 Thomas Jermyn
1704–1722 General Henry Lumley
1723–1749 Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham
1749–1761 Lieutenant General John Huske
1761–1772 George Keppel, 3rd Earl of Albemarle
1772–1795 Field Marshal Henry Seymour Conway
1795–1796 Field Marshal Sir George Howard
1796–1807 George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend
1807–1820 John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham
1820–1854 William Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford (Last Governor)

List of lieutenant governors of Jersey

Lieutenant Governors of Jersey have been:

Title Appointed Name
  1634 Sir Philippe de Carteret (Royalist)
  26 August 1643 Major Lydcott (Parliament)
  24 November 1643 Sir George Carteret (Royalist)
at least by 1689 Edward Harris
  3 March 1695 Col. Thomas Collier
  29 July 1715 Robert Wilson
  1723 Magnus Kempenfelt
  23 October 1727 Col. George Howard
  1732 Peter Bettesworth
  1738 Maj-Gen. Jean Cavalier
  1741 Francis Best
  1747 Gregory Beake
  12 August 1749 William Deane
  26 June 1753 George Colingwood
Lieutenant Governor and Colonel on Staff: 7 July 1770 Lt-Col. Rudolph Bentinck (acting)
  4 April 1771 Major Moses Corbet
  6 January 1781 Major Francis Peirson (acting) (killed in action, 6 January 1781)
  5 October 1797 Lt-Gen. Andrew Gordon
  21 June 1806 Gen. Sir George Don, GCB, GCH
  8 October 1814 Gen. Sir Tomkyns Hilgrove Turner, GCH
  9 May 1816 Lt-Gen. Hugh Mackay Gordon
  23 July 1821 Gen. Sir Colin Halkett, GCB, GCH, GCTE
  26 November 1830 Lt-Gen. Sir William Thornton, KCB
  22 April 1835 Maj-Gen. Archibald Campbell, CB
  14 September 1838 Lt-Gen. Sir Edward Gibbs, KCB
  16 January 1847 Maj-Gen. Sir James Henry Reynett, KCB, KCH
  30 April 1852 Gen. Sir James Frederick Love, GCB, KH
  30 January 1857 Maj-Gen. Godfrey Charles Mundy
  18 September 1860 Maj-Gen. Sir Robert Percy Douglas
  5 October 1862 B. Loch (acting)
  23 October 1863 Lt-Gen. Sir Burke Douglas Cuppage, KCB
  1 October 1868 Maj-Gen. Philip Melmoth Nelson Guy, CB
  1 October 1873 Lt-Gen. Sir William Sherbrooke Ramsay Norcott, KCB
  1 October 1878 Lt-Gen. Lothian Nicholson, CB
  1 October 1883 Maj-Gen. Henry Wray, CMG
  1 November 1887 Lt-Gen. Charles Brisbane Ewart, CB
Lieutenant Governor and Commanding the Troops: 1 November 1892 Lt-Gen. Sir Edwin Markham, KCB
  10 May 1895 Lt-Gen. Sir Edward Hopton, KCB
  1 November 1900 Maj-Gen. Henry Richard Abadie, CB
  1904 Maj-Gen. Hugh Sutlej Gough, CB, CMG
  16 June 1910 Maj-Gen. Sir Alexander Nelson Rochfort, KCB, CMG
  7 October 1916 Maj-Gen. Sir Alexander Wilson, KCB
  29 October 1920 Maj-Gen. Sir William Douglas Smith, KCB, KCVO
  1924 Maj-Gen. Sir Francis Richard Bingham, KCB, KCMG, JP
  28 May 1929 Maj-Gen. Edward Henry Willis, CB, CMG
  28 May 1934 Maj-Gen. Sir Horace de Courcy Martelli, KBE, CB, DSO
  1939 Maj-Gen. James Murray Robert Harrison, CB DSO
(German Occupation 1940–1945)    
Head of the British Military Government: 12 May 1945 L.A. Freeman
Lieutenant Governor and Commander-in-Chief: 25 August 1945 Lt-Gen. Sir Arthur Edward Grasett, KBE, CB, DSO, MC
  16 October 1953 Adm. Sir Randolph Stewart Gresham Nicholson, KBE, CB, DSO, DSC
  15 November 1958 Gen. Sir George Erskine, GCB, KBE, DSO
  15 January 1964 Vice-Adm. Sir John Michael Villiers, KCB, OBE
  30 June 1969 Air Chf Mshl Sir John Gilbert Davis, GCB, OBE, MA
  2 September 1974 Gen. Sir Geoffrey Richard Desmond Fitzpatrick, GCB, DSO, MBE, MC
  26 November 1979 Gen. Sir Peter John Frederick Whiteley, GCB, OBE
  9 January 1985 Adm. Sir William Thomas Pillar, GBE, KCB
  1990 Air Mshl Sir John Matthias Dobson Sutton, KCB
  September 1995 Gen. Sir Michael John Wilkes, KCB, OBE
  24 January 2001 Air Chf Mshl Sir John Cheshire, KBE, CB
  1 April 2006 Lt-Gen Sir Andrew Ridgway, KBE, CB
  26 September 2011 Gen. Sir John McColl, KCB, CBE, DSO
  13 March 2017 Air Chf Mshl Sir Stephen Dalton, GCB
  8 October 2022 Vce Adm Jerry Kyd, CBE

Flag

The lieutenant governor has his own flag in Jersey, the Union Flag defaced with the bailiwick's coat of arms.

Residence

The official residence of the lieutenant governor is Government House in St Saviour, Jersey. It was depicted on the Jersey £50 note during the period 1989–2010.

See also

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