|
The Viceroy of India was the highest position in the Indian administration during the British Raj
and the Portuguese Empire. Under British rule, it was considered
one of the most powerful offices in the world.
The term viceroy derives from vice ("sub-") and roy (French roi, "king"), indicating his
role as direct representative of the monarch. The Viceroy's wife was called the
vicereine.
Portuguese viceroys
The office was created by king Manuel I of Portugal in
1505 for Francisco de Almeida, after the discovery of the Atlantic route to India by Vasco da Gama.
List of British viceroys
The office was created in 1858 after the Sepoy Rebellion, as an
expansion of the office of Governor-General. It
was abolished upon the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947 and replaced with the Governor-General of India and Governor-General of Pakistan.
- Charles John Canning,
1st Earl Canning 1858 - 1862
- James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, 12th
Earl of Kincardine 1862 - 1863
- Sir John
Laird Mair Lawrence 1864 - 1869
- Richard
Southwell Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo 1869 - 1872
- Thomas
George Baring, 2nd Baron Northbrook 1872 - 1876
- Robert
Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Lord Lytton 1876 - 1880
- George Frederick
Samuel Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon 1880 - 1884
- Frederick Temple Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Earl of
Dufferin 1884 - 1888
- Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne
1888 - 1894
- Victor
Alexander Bruce, 9th Earl of Elgin, 13th Earl of Kincardine 1894 - 1899
- George
Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Baron Curzon 1899 - 1905
- Gilbert John Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto 1905 - 1910
- Charles Hardinge, 1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst 1910 - 1916
- Frederic John Napier Thesiger, 3rd Baron Chelmsford 1916 - 1921
- Rufus Isaacs, 1st Earl
of Reading 1921 - 1925
- Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Baron Irwin 1926 - 1931
- Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Earl of Willingdon 1931 - 1936
- Victor Alexander
John Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow 1936 - 1943
- Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell 1943 - 1947
- Louis Mountbatten, 1st Viscount Mountbatten of Burma 1947
|