Name Martin West Role Colonial administrator | Education Balliol College | |
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Died 1849, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa |
Sir Martin West (1804–1849) was born in England, the son of a civil servant in the Treasury.
![Martin West colonial administrator Martin West colonial administrator](https://alchetron.com/cdn/martin-west-colonial-administrator-c54f3881-4e4f-4815-8dc4-793e7c91083-resize-750.jpeg)
Martin West studied at Balliol College, Oxford, before joining the British East India Company. He served in Bombay but had to retire on grounds of ill-health and became Resident Magistrate in Grahamstown, South Africa.
![Martin West colonial administrator Martin West colonial administrator](https://alchetron.com/cdn/martin-west-colonial-administrator-a7812460-e6f6-4886-bd4c-884fe7793e4-resize-750.jpg)
From this post, he was appointed the first Lieutenant-Governor and the first civilian administrator of the Colony of Natal in 1845, still a dependency of the Cape.
![Martin West colonial administrator Martin West colonial administrator](https://alchetron.com/cdn/martin-west-colonial-administrator-c54f3881-4e4f-4815-8dc4-793e7c91083-resize-750.jpeg)
Joyce’s short biographical entry describes him as "a moderate administrator, …(who) suffered from poor health and, ill-supported by the British government, … achieved negligible progress during his term of office". He was retired from the Natal governorship in 1849 and died that year.
![Martin West colonial administrator Martin West colonial administrator](https://alchetron.com/cdn/martin-west-colonial-administrator-6ce158e5-3524-4cb0-9d82-14dfb2a066e-resize-750.jpeg)
Durban's West Street and the suburb of Westville are named after him.
![Martin West colonial administrator Martin West colonial administrator](https://alchetron.com/cdn/martin-west-colonial-administrator-eb164a06-2525-4afa-bf41-2bf11354435-resize-750.jpeg)