John Sturrock (colonial administrator)

Sir John Christian Ramsay Sturrock CMG (20 March 1875 – 13 February 1937) was a British colonial administrator. He served as Resident Commissioner in Basutoland, from 1926 to 1935.^[1][2][3]

Early life and education

Sturrock was born in Madras, British India, the second son of John Sturrock CIE of Dundee, Scotland, and his wife, Regina Mary Dobbie, daughter of Gen. George Staple Dobbie.^[4][5] He was educated at Charterhouse School. He graduated B.A. at Balliol College, Oxford in 1898, M.A. in 1902.^[1][6][7]

Career

Sturrock acted as tutor to Daudi Cwa II of Buganda, a government appointment, and accompanied him to England in 1913.^[2][8][9] He was appointed a District Commissioner in Uganda in 1914; and Provincial Commissioner in 1922.^[1] In the early 1920s he helped set up dispensaries in Uganda.^[10]

Described as "progressive" by Gill, Sturrock began a programme of reform in what is now Lesotho in the 1920s.^[11] He made a good impression on Margery Perham, a visitor to Basutoland around the end of 1929.^[12] He took the view that indirect rule had not been applied effectively; and initiated judicial and administrative reform measures that were applied over a period of a dozen years.^[13]

In 1935, Sturrock was replaced as Resident Commissioner by Edmund Charles Smith Richards.^[3]

Family

Sturrock married on 19 April 1917 Blanche Elizabeth Walker, third daughter of Daniel Houston Walker of Middlesbrough.^[6]

Notes

1. Debrett's Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage. Dean & Son, limited. 1931. p. 2121.
2. Pirouet, M. Louise. "Chwa, Daudi". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/75909. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
3. Henige, David P. (1970). Colonial Governors. p. 92. ISBN 9780299054403.
4. India, Select Births and Baptisms, 1786-1947
5. India, Select Marriages, 1792-1948
6. The Carthusian June 1917 (PDF) at p. 13
7. "Obituary: Sir John Sturrock". The Times. London. 15 February 1937. p. 14.
8. Akyeampong, Emmanuel Kwaku; Gates, Henry Louis (2012). Dictionary of African Biography. USA: OUP. p. 95. ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5.
9. Green, Jeffrey (2012). Black Edwardians: Black People in Britain 1901-1914. Routledge. p. 49. ISBN 9781136318306.
10. G. J. Keane, H. B. Thomas and Robert Scott, The Progress of Uganda, Journal of the Royal African Society Vol. 35, No. 140 (Jul., 1936), pp. 311–319, at p. 317. Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal African Society. JSTOR 717338
11. Gill, Stephen J. (1993). A short history of Lesotho from the late stone age until the 1993 elections. Morija Museum & Archives. p. 183. ISBN 9789991179360.
12. Bull, Mary; Smith, Alison (2013). Margery Perham and British Rule in Africa. Taylor & Francis. p. 68. ISBN 9781317727576.
13. Machobane, L B; Karschay, Stephan (6 August 1990). Government and Change in Lesotho, 1800–1966: A Study of Political Institutions. Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 178, 180. ISBN 9781349209064.