Sir William MacGregor was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in 1846. He graduated in medicine from Aberdeen University in 1872. He became assistant medical officer of Praslin and La Digue in the Seychelles in 1873, and chief medical officer of Fiji in 1875. Between 1888 and 1909 he was successively Governor of British New Guinea, Lagos, and Newfoundland, and from 1909 to 1914 he was Governor of Queensland, Australia. He died in Aberdeen in 1919.

Source: W. MacAteer, The Doctor's House: Curieuse Island, Seychelles. Seychelles: SCMRT-MPA, 2004.

See also F. P. Sprent, ‘MacGregor, Sir William (1846–1919)’, rev. Lynn Milne, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.