William Caine (17 March 1799 – 19 September 1871) was the firsthead of the Hong Kong Police Force (1841–1844 as Chief Magistrate),Colonial Secretary ofHong Kong from 1846 to 1854. He attained the rank ofLieutenant Colonel prior to his secretary appointment. Caine was also the actingGovernor of Hong Kong between May and September 1859.

Captain Caine was born inMaynooth,Ireland, on 17 March 1799.^[1] He served in theBritish Army's26th (Cameronian) Regiment of Foot during the Peninsular War against Napoleon in Spain. His regiment was later transferred to Hong Kong and he began his long association with the colony.^[2]

Caine wasChief Magistrate, the head of pre-Hong Kong Police Force from 1841 to 1844. The then Major Caine was appointed Colonial Secretary andAuditor General^[3] from 1846 to 1854.^[4] His role was considerably diminished after the arrival in 1849 of the new governorSir John Bowring who stamped his authority on Hong Kong after his power struggle with Caine went all the way to the Colonial Office for resolution.^[5]

He was theColonial Secretary ofHong Kong from 1854 to 1859. He was the actingGovernor of Hong Kong between May and September 1859.

Caine was party to a long-running feud withWilliam Tarrant, who, as Registrar of Deeds in 1847, accused Caine of permitting hiscomprador to extort vendors inCentral Market and siphon prostitutes tax into private pocket.^[6] An internal government inquiry held Tarrant's claim to be baseless, and Tarrant was sacked from the civil service and effectively barred from future re-employment. Tarrant then became a journalist and after purchasing theFriend of China newspaper in 1850 repeatedly attacked Caine in its pages until the latter sued Tarrant for libel in 1859, as a result of which Tarrant was sentenced to prison.^[7]: 64

Caine had four sons:

• George Whittingham Caine (1832 – 31 January 1874 in Shanghai^[8]); a junior clerk in the Plenipotentiary's Department in 1855.^[9]
• William Hull Caine
• Henry Monteith Caine
• Charles Henry Fearon Caine

Caine retired and left Hong Kong in 1859.^[10] He died on 19 September 1871 in Granville Park,Blackheath, England.^[11]

• Caine Road, Mid-Levels, Hong Kong^[12]
• Caine House, a 29-floor L-shaped building, part of theHong Kong Police Headquarters, was built in 1987.^[13]

• Endacott, G. B. (2005) [1962].A biographical sketch-book of early Hong Kong.Hong Kong University Press.ISBN 978-962-209-742-1.

• 1799 births
• 1871 deaths
• 19th-century British politicians
• British Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars
• British military personnel of the First Opium War
• Cameronians officers
• Chief secretaries of Hong Kong
• Governors of Hong Kong

• CS1: unfit URL
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from August 2019