The Administrator of Tristan da Cunha is the head of government and representative of the

Governor of Saint Helena The Governor of Saint Helena is the representative of the British monarch in the United Kingdom's overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. The Governor is appointed by the monarch on the official advice of His Majesty ...

Tristan da Cunha Tristan da Cunha (), colloquially Tristan, is a remote group of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying approximately from Cape Town in South Africa, from Saint Helena ...

Objective

The role of the Administrator is to chair the territory's Island Council which consists of eight elected members and three appointed members. As a part of the

British overseas territory The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen dependent territory, territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remna ...

Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha is a British Overseas Territory located in the South Atlantic and consisting of the island of Saint Helena, Ascension Island and the archipelago of Tristan da Cunha including Gough Island. Its name wa ...

, the head of state is

Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...

, with the Governor of Saint Helena appointed by the British government to act as his local representative. As Tristan da Cunha is located at a distance of more than from Saint Helena, an Administrator is appointed as the Governor's representative on the island. Previously the Administrator also acted as the local

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...

, but the appointment is to be transferred to a non-member of the executive or legislative branches of government.

History

The first Administrator, appointed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, was Surgeon Lieutenant Commander E. J. S. Woolley, the head of the 16-man British naval garrison on the island which was charged with monitoring German submarines and intercepting their communications. The first appointee to the post was Sir Hugh Elliott in 1949, when commercial development began of the local crayfish catch, for export markets. There was then no currency on Tristan da Cunha: local trade was by barter. Elliott's activities included the island's first postal service and discovery of a new species of flea, which he named for his wife Elizabeth. The Administrator has his own flag, a

Union Jack The Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. Although no law has been passed making the Union Flag the official national flag of the United Kingdom, it has effectively become such through precedent. ...

with the addition of the territory's coat of arms in the centre of the flag.

List of Administrators

The following is a complete list of Administrators of Tristan da Cunha:"Tristan da Cunha Administrator"
''Tristan da Cunha''. Retrieved 15 September 2022.

References

External links

Tristan da Cunha Administrator
– Tristan da Cunha Government & Tristan da Cunha Association {{British dependencies governors