Sir William Haldane-Porter

Sir William Haldane Porter CB (15 May 1867 – 12 September 1944) was a British civil servant, who was responsible for the creation of the Aliens Branch of the Home Office, now the UK Border Force.

William Haldane Porter was born on 15 May 1867 at 23 University Square, Belfast within the precincts of Queen's University. His name was given simply as William. The middle name Haldane, by which he was known thereafter, and gave the impression of a combined but unhyphenated double barrelled surname, was added when he was baptised on 30 June 1867 by Rev. Henry Cooke (1788–1868), his maternal grandfather, then President of Assembly's College, Belfast and founding Minister of the May Street Presbyterian Church, Belfast. The name Haldane is that of a maternal uncle, Alexander Haldane Cooke (1836–1870), so called after James Alexander Haldane (1768–1851), independent Scottish church leader, preacher, and missionary, with whom Henry Cooke may have been associated theologically many years earlier.

William was the youngest of the four surviving children (two sons and two daughters) of Rev. Josias Leslie Porter and Margaret Rainey Cooke (c.1827–1898).

His father, Rev. Josias Leslie Porter, hailed from yeoman Scottish settler stock with family lands overlooking Lough Swilly at Burt in county Donegal. He had been a Presbyterian Church of Ireland missionary to the Jews in Palestine based at Damascus between 1849 and 1859, writing several published illustrated books on the subject and a definitive autobiography of his father-in-law Rev Henry Cooke. Upon his return to Ireland he became Professor of Theological Criticism at Queen's College, Belfast and subsequently President (1878), with a house on the domain.

His mother was the youngest of the thirteen children of Henry Cooke. She married Josias Porter on 9 October 1849 when she was just over twenty years old. The ceremony was conducted by her father Henry Cooke, at his own church in May Street Belfast. The couple almost immediately left for Palestine on their missionary work. Including William, there were 3 other children: Leslie Alexander Selim Porter (later Sir) (1853–1934) born in Damascus, who become Acting Governor General of the United Provinces of India until retirement to England in 1911; Norah Leslie Porter (1854–1934) born in Palestine, and Ellen Beresford Porter (known as Ela) (1864–1944) born in Belfast. Both daughters remained unmarried.

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