List of colonial governors of the Gambia
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This is a list of colonial governors and administrators in the Gambia from the establishment of a British settlement on St Mary's Island, now known as Banjul Island, in 1816, through to the Gambia Colony and Protectorate's independence from the United Kingdom in 1965.
The official title of the Commandant of St Mary's Island was given as the Commandant of the British Settlement at St Mary's in 1823. In 1821, the Gambia became a British colony that formed part of Sierra Leone. In 1829, a lieutenant governor was appointed that was subordinate to the governor of Sierra Leone. Between 1843 and 1866, the Gambia had its own governor independent of Sierra Leone. It once again became subordinate in 1866, with an administrator being appointed to govern the territory. An independent governor was again appointed in 1901 that also acted as the commander-in-chief of the colony.
The Gambia achieved independence in 1965. Thereafter, the viceroy of the British Crown in the Gambia became the Governor-General of the Gambia, until it renounced Queen Elizabeth II as head of state in 1970.
Before 1816
Before 1816, the colonial presence in the Gambia was restricted to James Island (known as St Andrew's Island from 1456 to 1660, and as Kunta Kinteh Island since 2011).
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1768425. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1816, 1965, 1823 and 1821.
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This entry incorporates text from “List of colonial governors of the Gambia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.