In this capacity, the governor was president of the Executive Council and Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in Ceylon.

Initially limited to the coastal regions, the authority of the governor was extended to the provinces of the Kingdom of Kandy following the Kandyan Convention in 1815.

it was in the Colebrooke Reforms which first defined the role of the governor as "the representative of the Sovereign the Monarch who rules over the Parliament of the United Kingdom".

The governor was the ex-officio Chancellor of the University of Ceylon and patron of the Royal College Colombo.

The vacationing residence of the governor, Queen's Cottage, was located in the hill station of Nuwara Eliya.