Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

Sir John Terence Nicholls O'Brien (23 April 1830 – 25 February 1903) was a

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

, engineer and colonial

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

. Born in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England, O'Brien studied at

Elizabeth College, Guernsey The Royal College of Elizabeth, better known as Elizabeth College, is a co-educational independent school in Saint Peter Port, Guernsey. One of the earliest members of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC), it is a public school ...

, and then attended the

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infantry a ...

. O'Brien, a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officer, received a medal of honour for his service in the Indian Mutiny War. He was appointed acting

Governor of British Ceylon The governor of Ceylon was the representative in Ceylon of the British Crown from 1795 to 1948. In this capacity, the governor was president of the Executive Council and Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in Ceylon. The governor was the ...

in 1863 and held the office for two years, succeeding

Charles Justin MacCarthy Sir Charles Justin MacCarthy (1811–1864) was the 12th Governor of British Ceylon and the 12th Accountant General and Controller of Revenue. He was appointed on 22 October 1860 and was Governor until 1 December 1863. He also served as acting gov ...

. In 1881, he was appointed governor of

Heligoland Heligoland (; german: Helgoland, ; Heligolandic Frisian: , , Mooring Frisian: , da, Helgoland) is a small archipelago in the North Sea. A part of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein since 1890, the islands were historically possessions ...

, knighted in 1888 and became governor of

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

in 1889. O'Brien as governor of

helped precipitate the 1894 bank crash by his many dispatches to London noting that Newfoundland politicians under Premier

William Whiteway Sir William Vallance Whiteway, (April 1, 1828 – June 24, 1908) was a politician and three time Premier of Colony of Newfoundland, Newfoundland. Life and career Born in Littlehempston, Devon, England, Whiteway emigrated to Newfoundland i ...

's Liberal Government were uniquely corrupt and incompetent. He resigned from office in 1895 and returned to London. The Newfoundland community of Terenceville was so named in his honour. O'Brien's son, Sir Charles O'Brien, also became a colonial governor. O'Brien died in 1903 in London, England.

References

External links

Biography at Government House ''The Governorship of Newfoundland and Labrador''Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''
1830 births 1903 deaths Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George People educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Governors of Newfoundland Colony British East India Company Army officers British Indian Army officers British military personnel of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 Lieutenant Governors of Heligoland Governors of British Ceylon British expatriates in Sri Lanka 19th-century British military personnel General Officers Commanding, Ceylon Military personnel from Manchester {{canada-viceroy-stub

See also

References

External links