Governor of Pitcairn

In 1898, the Colonial Secretary placed Pitcairn Island under the authority of the Fiji-based Western Pacific High Commission, largely for the purposes of convening a murder trial. The High Commissioner – a post held by the governor of Fiji – initially delegated his authority over Pitcairn to the British consul in Tahiti, who was appointed a deputy commissioner for that purpose.^[3] No visit to Pitcairn was undertaken by the consul until 1904. A revised law code imposed in the same year made the islands' local courts subject to the High Commissioner's Court.^[4]

Cecil Rodwell became the first and only High Commissioner to visit Pitcairn in 1921, staying for seven hours.^[5] Despite Rodwell's criticism of the local authorities, no British official visited the island again until 1936, when the British consul at Tahiti visited to hear another murder trial.^[6] In 1940, the High Commissioner despatched Henry Maude (and his wife Honor) to Pitcairn as its first resident deputy high commissioner, tasking with imposing a new legal code and organising the Pitcairn postal service (producing souvenir postage stamps to boost the island's revenue).^[7] However, in 1951 the High Commissioner's Court declared that Maude's code had been issued ultra vires and the High Commissioner had no power under British law to create laws or courts on Pitcairn.^[8] An order-in-council was issued in 1952 to re-enact the code.^[9]

In 1952, the Western Pacific High Commission was relocated to the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. Pitcairn was removed from the jurisdiction of the High Commissioner and made a dependency of Fiji, administered by the governor of Fiji through the Pitcairn Office (later known as the Pitcairn and Tonga Office and the South Pacific Office).^[10] Pitcairn nonetheless remained subject to the High Commissioner's Court until 1961, when it was placed under the Supreme Court of Fiji.^[11]

On 10 October 1970, the date of Fiji's independence, the Pitcairn Order 1970 came into operation and created the new position of "Governor of the Islands" (defined as "the Islands of Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno").^[12] The governorship was vested in the British high commissioner to New Zealand, with the administration based in the British consulate in Auckland.^[13]

• List of rulers of the Pitcairn Islands, for local rulers since 1790
• List of high commissioners of the United Kingdom to New Zealand, for governors since 1970