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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3546, 20 November 1882, Page 2

It is rumored in well informed circles" in London that Sir A. Gordon will be appointed Governor of Jamaica; Sir Anj thony Musgrave, Governor of Ceylon and that Colonel Sir William Francis Drummond Jervois, at present Governor of South Australia, will be promoted to tbe Governorship of New Zealand ; while Sir John Pope Hennessy will assume the Governorship of Queensland.

Sir William Jervois, eldest son of tho late General Jervois, Colonel of the 76th Regiment, was (says Men of the Time) born at Cowes, Isle of Wight, in 1821, and having passed at Woolwich, entered the Royal Engineers in 1839. Having completed the usual course of study ab Chatham, he was ordered to the Cape of Good Hope in 1841, and was actively employed in that colony for upwarde of seven years in various capacities. In 1842 he acted as brigade major in an expedition against the Boers, and during the three following years was professionally engaged at various frontier stations, making roads, building bridges, and establishing military posts. In 1845 having been appointed Acting-Adjutant to the Royal Engineers he accompanied the Chief Engineer over the whole frontier of the Cape Colony and the settlement of Natal, and in the part of 1846 he was major of brigade to the garrison of Cape Town, until the arrival of Sir H. Pottinger as Governor, and Sir G. Berkeley as [commander-in-chief, with whom he proceeded to the frontier against the Kaffirs. During the Kaffir war he made a military survey and map of Kaffraria, a work of great difficulty ably executed. From 1848 to 1852 he commanded a company of sappers at Woolwich and Chatham ; in the latter year he was ordered to the island of Alderney for tho purpose of designing plans for the fortifications, and the superintendence of their execution, and in 1854 was promoted to the rank of major. In 1855 Major Jervois was transferred to the London district, as Commanding Royal Engineer, and was nominated by Lord Panmure a member of a Committee on Barrack Accommodation, whose labors contributed much to the improvements which have of late years been effected in the construction of barracks, as well as in the sanitary condition of our troops. In 1856 he was appointed to the post of Assistant Inspector - (General of Fortifications, under Sir John Burgoyne, and on the appointment of a Royal Commission to report upon the defences of the country, he was selected by the Government to be secretary. He was a member of the Special Committee on the Application of Iron to Ships and Fortifications. In 1861 he attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, in 1862 was appointed Deputy Director of Fortifications under Sir John Burgoyne, and in 1863 was nominated a Companion of the Bath, and was sent on a special mission to report on the defences of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, _on which occasion he visited the 'fortifications at the principal ports on the seaboard of the United States. In 1864 he was again sent on a special mission to Canada to confer with the Canadian Government on the question of the defence of that province. On his return to England his report was laid before Parliament, and the Imperial Government undertook to carry out the defences of Quebec on the plan recommended by him. In addition to his post at the War Office, Colonel Jervois was Secretary to the Permanent Defence Committee, under the presidency of the Duke of Cambridge. He was created a Knight Commander of the order of SS. Michael and George in 1874, and was appointed Governor of the Straits Settlement April 7th, 1875. The latter post he held till June, 1877, when he was appointed Governor of South Australia. He was nominated G.C.M.G. in 1878.