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Martin West




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 .

From this post, he was appointed the first Lieutenant-Governor and the first civilian administrator of the recently annexed territory of Natal in 1845, still a dependency of the Cape.

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.

Durban ’s West Street is named after him.