William Wilberforce Bird (governor)

He was born in 1784 and educated in Warwick and Geneva before being nominated to join the British East India Company in 1802.

[1] Bird conducted himself well in Benares, including on occasions when he had to deal with civil disturbances involving local people.

Bird then replaced Ellenborough as Governor-General of India, acting in that capacity until the arrival of Sir Henry Hardinge from England in 1844.

[1] In the long-running debate concerning education in India, Bird favoured the secular cause, along with people such as Thomas Macaulay, as opposed to one that desired further to promote a Christian basis for schooling.

He said in 1835 that secular education was having good results in India and raised concerns that a Christian approach might upset the native people, potentially leading to what he described as "catastrophes of a very serious description".