Lieutenant governor
general title for high officer
A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose exact role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-command", rather like deputy governor. In Canadian provinces and in the Dutch Caribbean, the lieutenant governor is the representative of the Canadian monarch or Dutch monarch in that jurisdiction, and thus outranks the head of government, but for practical purposes has virtually no power.
In India, lieutenant governors are in charge of union territories in that country.
In the United States, lieutenant governors are usually second-in-command to a state governor, and the actual power held by the lieutenant governor varies greatly from state to state. The lieutenant governor is often first in line of succession to the governorship, and acts as governor when the governor leaves the state or is unable to serve. Also, the lieutenant governor is often the president of the state senate.
In Argentina, lieutenant governors are called "vice governors" and are modeled after the U.S. lieutenant governors, since as their U.S. counterpart the vice governors are the second-in-command to a provincial governor, and are the first in the gubernatorial line of succession. Also, the vice governor usually acts as the president of the provincial senate (or the provincial legislature in unicameral provinces).
Lieutenant governors in the former British Empire
Australia – Lieutenant-Governor (Australia)
Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales
Lieutenant-Governor of Queensland
Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria
Canada – Lieutenant Governor (Canada)
Lieutenant Governor of Alberta
Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia
Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba
Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick
Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador
Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia
Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island
Lieutenant Governor of Quebec
Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan
British Crown Dependencies and other possessions
Guernsey – Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey
Isle of Man – Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man
Jersey – Lieutenant Governor of Jersey
Hong Kong (historical) – Lieutenant Governor of Hong Kong (1843–1902)
Indonesia (historical) – Lieutenant-Governor of Java (1811–1814)
India – lieutenant governors and administrators
List of current Indian lieutenant governors and administrators
List of lieutenant governors of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands
List of lieutenant governors of Delhi
List of lieutenant governors of Jammu and Kashmir
List of lieutenant governors of Ladakh
List of lieutenant governors of Puducherry
New Zealand – The only person to have held the rank of Lieutenant Governor of New Zealand was Royal Navy Captain William Hobson from 1839 to 1841 when New Zealand colony was a dependency of the colony of New South Wales, governed at that time by Sir George Gipps.
The public source identifies “Lieutenant governor” as general title for high officer. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Lieutenant, governor and general.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1516453. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1843, 1902, 1811 and 1814.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Lieutenant governor” 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.