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British diplomat, colonial administrator and botanist From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sir Charles Norton Edgcumbe Eliot GCMG CB PC (8 January 1862 – 16 March 1931) was a British diplomat, colonial administrator and botanist. He served as Commissioner of British East Africa in 1900–1904. He was British Ambassador to Japan in 1919–1925.[1]
Sir Charles Eliot | |
|---|---|
| |
| British Ambassador to Japan | |
| In office 1919–1925 | |
| Monarch | George V |
| Prime Minister | David Lloyd George Bonar Law Stanley Baldwin Ramsay MacDonald |
| Preceded by | Sir Conyngham Greene |
| Succeeded by | Sir John Tilley |
| Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong | |
| In office 1912–1918 | |
| Succeeded by | Prof. G.P. Jordan |
| Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield | |
| In office 1905–1913 | |
| Succeeded by | Herbert Fisher |
| Commissioner of the East Africa Protectorate | |
| In office 30 December 1900 – 20 May 1904 | |
| Preceded by | Arthur Hardinge |
| Succeeded by | Sir Donald Stewart |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 8 January 1862 Sibford Gower, Oxfordshire |
| Died | 16 March 1931 (aged 69) Strait of Malacca |
| Alma mater | Cheltenham College Balliol College, Oxford |
He was also known as a malacologist and marine biologist.[2] He described a number of sea slug species, including Chelidonura varians.
Eliot was born in the village of Sibford Gower near Banbury, Oxfordshire, England and educated at Cheltenham College and Balliol College, Oxford,[3] where he took a double first in classical moderations and Greats, as well as winning the Craven, Ireland and Hertford scholarships. Remarkably, he also won the Boden Sanskrit Scholarship and the Houghton Syriac prize. He was a noteworthy linguist, with a full knowledge of 16 languages and conversant in 20 more.[4]
Eliot served in diplomatic posts in Russia (1885), Morocco (1892), Turkey (1893), and Washington, D.C. (1899). He also served as British Commissioner in Samoa. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 1898 Birthday Honours and was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in the New Year honours list 1 January 1900.[5][6]
In 1900, he was appointed commissioner of British East Africa, and on 1 January 1902 he was appointed Commissioner, Commander-in-Chief and Consul-General for the East Africa Protectorate, including the mainland dominions of the Sultan of Zanzibar, and also as British Agent and Consul-General for the island dominions of the Sultan.[7] In December 1902 he hosted the British colonial secretary (Joseph Chamberlain) during his tour of the African colonies.[8]
In April 1902, the first application for land in British East Africa was made by the East Africa Syndicate – a company in which financiers belonging to the British South Africa Company were interested – which sought a grant of 500 square miles (1,300 km2) sq. m., and this was followed by other applications for considerable areas, a scheme being also propounded for a large Jewish settlement (which was rejected by the world Jewish community). During 1903 the arrival of hundreds of prospective settlers, chiefly from South Africa, led to the decision to entertain no more applications for large areas of land, especially as questions were raised concerning the preservation for the Maasai of their rights of pasturage. In the 24 October 1903 edition of the Natal Witness, Eliot wrote: "There can be no doubt that the Maasai and many other tribes must go under. It is a prospect that I view with equanimity...I have no desire to protect Maasaidom...the sooner it disappears and it is unknown, except in books of anthropology, the better..."[9] In April 1903, Major Frederick Russell Burnham, the famous American scout and then a Director of the East African Syndicate, sent an expedition consisting of John Weston Brooke, John Charles Blick, Mr. Bittlebank, and Mr. Brown, to assess the mineral wealth of the region. The party, known as the "Four B.'s", travelled from Nairobi via Mount Elgon northwards to the western shores of Lake Rudolph, experiencing plenty of privations from want of water, and of the danger from encounters with the Maasai.[10]
In the carrying out of this policy of colonisation a dispute arose between Eliot and Lord Lansdowne, the British Foreign Secretary. Lansdowne, believing himself bound by pledges given to the East Africa Syndicate, decided that they should be granted the lease of the 500 square miles (1,300 km2) they had applied for; but after consulting officials of the protectorate then in London, he refused Eliot permission to conclude leases for 50 square miles (130 km2) each to two applicants from South Africa. Eliot thereupon resigned his post, and in a public telegram to the prime minister, dated Mombasa, 21 June 1904, gave as his reason:- "Lord Lansdowne ordered me to refuse grants of land to certain private persons while giving a monopoly of land on unduly advantageous terms to the East Africa Syndicate. I have refused to execute these instructions, which I consider unjust and impolitic." On the day Sir Charles sent this telegram, Sir Donald William Stewart, the chief commissioner of Ashanti (Ghana), was appointed his successor.
In 1905 Eliot was the first Vice-Chancellor of the newly created University of Sheffield until 1912 when he was appointed the first Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong; he served there until 1918 when he was recalled to the diplomatic service becoming high commissioner and consul-general in Siberia.[11]
He was the British Ambassador to Japan in 1920–1926: though the position was not renewed, he stayed in Japan, studying the practice of Buddhism there.[11] He regretted the 1921 decision to end the Anglo-Japanese alliance in 1923.[11]
Taken ill with influenza, he decided to return to England but died on the journey on 16 March 1931 and was buried at sea in the Straits of Malacca.[11] He never married.[11]
In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Sir Charles Eliot, OCLC/WorldCat encompasses roughly 106 works in 355 publications in 2 languages and 4,509 library holdings.[12]
History
The World Register of Marine Species mentions 119 marine taxa named by Charles Eliot.[13] Eliotia Vayssière, 1909, a nudibranch genus was named after him.
Species described by Charles Eliot include:
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