follow any instructions issued by the governor. It is current practice to appoint an acting governor when the governor is away from the island of Saint Helena, even if visiting either Ascension Island or Tristan da Cunha. In recent years the chief secretary (or the attorney general) has taken on this temporary role in the governor's absence, the most recent times being in January 2011 when the governor travelled to Tristan da Cunha and the chief secretary became deputy governor and then later in 2011 when Kenneth Baddon, the attorney general, became deputy governor. List of governors of Saint Helena East India Company governors The territory was governed by the East India Company from its initial colonization in 1659 to the end of company rule in 1834. Capt. John Dutton 1659–1660 Capt. Robert Stringer 1660–1669 Capt. Richard Coney 1669–1672 Capt. Anthony Beal 1672–73 Dutch East India Company interregnum – January to May 1673 Capt. Richard Keigwin 1673–1674 (interim) Capt. Gregory Field 1674–1678 Maj. John Blackmore 1678–1690 Capt. Joshua Johnson 1690–1693 – assassinated, whilst Governor, on the island Capt. Richard Keling 1693–1697 Capt. Stephen Poirier 1697–1707 Capt. John Roberts 1708–1711 Capt. Benjamin Boucher 1711–1713 Capt. Isaac Pike 1713–1718 Edward Johnson 1718–1722 Capt. John Smith 1722–1726 Edward Byfiel 1727–1731 Capt. Charles Hutchinson 1746–1764 Sir Robert Brooke 1788–1800 Francis Robson 13 Jul 1801 – 11 Mar 1802, Acting Governor and East India Company officer Colonel Robert Patton Mar 1802 – July 1807 Mark Wilks 1813–1816 Major-General Sir Hudson Lowe 1816–1821 John Pine Coffin 1821–1823 Brigadier General Alexander Walker 1823–1828 Charles Dallas 1828–1834 British Crown governors Following on from St Helena becoming a crown colony in 1834, the first governor was appointed in 1836. 1836 – Major General George Middlemore 1842 – Colonel Hamelin Trelawny 1846 – Major General Sir Patrick Ross 1851 – Colonel Sir Thomas Gore Browne 1856 – Sir Edward Drummond-Hay 1863 – Admiral Sir Charles Elliot 1870 – Vice Admiral Charles George Edward Patey 1873 – Hudson Ralph Janisch 1890 – Sir William Grey-Wilson 1897 – Robert Armitage Sterndale 1903 – Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Henry Galway 1912 – Major Sir Harry Cordeaux 1920 – Colonel Robert Peel 1925 – Lieutenant-Colonel Harold Iremonger (Acting Governor) 1925 – Sir Charles Harper 1932 – Sir Spencer Davis 1938 – Sir Guy Pilling 1941 – Major William Bain Gray 1947 – Sir George Joy 1954 – Sir James Harford 1958 – George Albert Lewis (Acting