Lord Grey

Lord Grey of Naunton, who has died aged 89, was one of the last and most liberal of Britain's colonial governors. An open-faced New Zealander with a nice line in self-deprecating humour, he was the most successful of the small number of ex-colonials admitted to the colonial service between the wars.

His achievements as Northern Ireland's last governor were overshadowed in 1972, when he was stripped of all but his ceremonial duties by Edward Heath's decision to impose direct rule on Northern Ireland. For Grey's last year there he was left impotent in Hillsborough castle, having for the four previous years presided over a devolved government as the Queen's representative. In 1973, he was made deputy chairman of the Commonwealth Development Corporation, becoming its chair-man in 1979.

His life peerage had accompanied his appointment to Northern Ireland in 1968, but he was born Ralph Grey in Wellington, New Zealand. Educated at Scotts College, Wellington College and University College, Auckland, he was called to the bar and served as a judge's aide for four years.

Grey joined the British colonial service in 1963 and did a probationer's course at Pembroke College, Cambridge. His first appointment was to Nigeria, where he spent the next 22 years. He was knighted in 1956, after becoming chief secretary of the Nigerian federation. The following year he became deputy governor-general, but Nigeria was moving rapidly to independence.

He then became a full governor in British Guiana, where a provocative nationalist, Cheddi Jagan, was challenging British rule in a country divided between those of Indian and African origins. Grey's five turbulent years in post were marked by rioting, which led to the flying out of 350 troops, a general strike and a state of emergency.

After that, his governorship of the Bahamas (1964-68) was almost a holiday, despite its layered society of poor blacks and rich white tax-dodgers. Grey sought to attract skilled Britons in order to avoid the islands becoming effectively an American colony. By 1967 he was able to invite Lynden Pindling to form the Bahamas' first non-white government.

Northern Ireland was the summit of Grey's career. He was an almost immediate success because of his New Zealander's lack of "side". Within months he was able to say: "So far, both sides have been extremely nice to me. I only wish they were a little nicer to each other." Unfortunately, they became increasingly beastly. Grey warned Home Secretary James Callaghan: "I think you are in for an impending conflagration," and later witnessed the arrival of British troops in 1969.

His New Zealander wife of 52 years, Esmé, was the widow of his best friend, a wartime pilot. She predeceased him in 1996. Grey is survived by his two sons and a daughter.

Ralph Francis Alnwick Grey, Lord Grey of Naunton, colonial administrator, born April 15 1910; died October 17 1999

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