William Lamond Allardyce was born in India in 1861. He entered Oxford Military College in Scotland at sixteen and began his career as a Colonial Service cadet in Fiji. He became Governor of the Falkland Islands in 1904. His eleven-year term as Governor of the Falkland Islands (1904 - 1915) covered an exciting period, which included the advent of modern whaling, the establishment of the Falkland Island Dependencies, the introduction of wireless communication in the Antarctic, and the great naval battle of the Falkland Islands (1914). His most enduring contribution to the Antarctic, however, was his pioneering effort to conserve the Antarctic whale stocks by stringent controls of the whaling industry, including the introduction of new regulations that prohibited the killing of whale calves and mothers with calves.
After his service in the Falkland Islands, Allardyce was appointed Governor of the Bahamas (1915 - 1920), then was appointed Governor of Tasmania (1920 - 1922) and finally Governor of Newfoundland (1922 - 1928). He died on 9 June 1930.
From the guide to the William Lamond Allardyce collection, 1908 - 1915, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
