Walter Douglas

Colonel Walter Douglas (1670–1739) was Captain-General and Governor-General of the Leeward Islands. Walter Douglas was one of seven sons of William Douglas of Baads (d. 1705) and his wife, Joan, daughter of James Mason of Park, Blantyre. One of his brothers was the surgeon John Douglas (d. 1759), another James Douglas, (1675-1742), FRS, a physician and anatomist, and a third George Douglas, FRS, (-1737) a physician. Walter Douglas appears to have been educated at the University of Utrecht, which he is said to have left to join King William of Orange when he invaded England in 1688. The Duke of Queensbury was his patron. Colonel Douglas was appointed Governor of the Leeward Islands in 1711 following the assassination of his predecessor, Colonel Parke, during a mutiny triggered by his self-enriching enforcement of Stuart imperialism. He was superseded as governor in 1716. he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1711.