George Beresford-Stooke

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

George Beresford-Stooke
Born
George Beresford Stooke

(1897-01-03)3 January 1897
Priors Marston, Warwickshire, England
Died7 April 1983(1983-04-07) (aged 86)
Somerset, England
NationalityUnited Kingdom
OccupationColonial civil servant
Known forGovernor of Sierra Leone

Sir George Beresford-Stooke KCMG (3 January 1897 – 7 April 1983) – always known as "Toby" - was Chief Secretary to Northern Rhodesia,[1] and later was appointed Governor of Sierra Leone from September, 1947 until December 1952.[2][3]

Beresford-Stooke was born on 3 January 1897 in Priors Marston, Warwickshire. On 15 January 1914 (just after his 17th birthday) he enrolled in the Royal Navy, with the rank of Paymaster Lieutenant.[4]

After the end of the First World War, he joined her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service (HMOCS), serving in Sarawak, Kenya, Mauritius, Zanzibar, and as Chief Secretary of Northern Rhodesia and then of Nigeria.[5]

He married Creenagh Richards.

While Governor of Sierra Leone, he was also Chief Scout of that country.[5]

In 1951, Sir George revised the Constitution of Sierra Leone to expand the franchise to women in areas of the "interior" where, up until that point, only men were allowed the right to vote on local matters. Beresford-Stooke ordered government resources to go towards building health clinics and repairing roads on Tasso Island, Kagbeli Island and Tumbu Island which had long been overlooked by the government. Each island had a small handful of facilities run by the British government, however those facilities were all racially segregated into "European" and "African" sections. Beresford-Stooke ordered all of those facilities to be desegregated, and all new facilities to be built without racial segregation in mind with respects to new structures. In the city of Bo, local indigenous leaders requested more funds for school building repairs and road repairs, Beresford-Stooke succeeded in getting those funds allocated and having the roads and facilities repaired before leaving office. Beresford-Stooke also requested and received help in increasingly "rural literacy" programs in the colony's interior, and he ordered that signs which had hitherto only been painted in English also be painted in the Sherbro, Mende and Temne languages so that local people who did not speak English were able to read them. Sir Milton Margai later said that if more colonial administrators "had been like Beresford-Stooke, Hodson, Wilkinson and Ransford Slater, colonialism would have had a better reputation. However, most simply were not."[6][7] [8][9] In 1954 Sir George was appointed a Knight of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.[10] His portrait is in the National Portrait Gallery[11]

They retired to East Molesey, Surrey, and Sir George became Second Crown Agent for the Colonies.[12] He served as Treasurer to the International African Institute, 1955–1965, and as Vice-Chairman, 1957–1974.[13]

In 1954, after six months as Assistant, Sir George, having been a Scout for many years, was appointed Overseas Commissioner for the Boy Scout Association[5]

In 1959, Sir George was part of a team to investigate the detention camps in Kenya/[14]

Sir George was a Gentleman Usher of the Blue Rod, 1959–1972.

They later moved to Hillfarance, West of Taunton, Somerset, and he died on 7 April 1983.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Carey Jones, N. S. (10 June 2011). The Pattern of a Dependent Economy. Cambridge University press. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-521-24201-1.
  2. ^ Cahoon, Ben. "Sierra Leone".
  3. ^ Sunderland, David (21 June 2007). Managing British Colonial and Post-Colonial Development: The Crown Agents, 1914–1974. Boydell Press. p. 3. ISBN 978-1-84383-301-7.
  4. ^ "Catalogue description Name Stooke, George Beresford Date of Birth: 03 January 1897 Rank".
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c http://www.thedump.scoutscan.com/dumpextras/othermags/The%20Scouter%20(U.K.%20Monthly)/The%20Scouter%20-%201954/02%20-%20February.pdf
  6. ^ Address by His Excellency the Governor, Sir George Beresford-Stooke, on Opening the 26th Session of the Legislative Council 1949
  7. ^ Badmus, IA (2009). "Explaining Women's Roles in the West African Tragic Triplet: Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Cote d'Ivoire in Comparative Perspective". Journal of Alternative Perspectives in the Social Sciences. 1 (3): 808–839. hdl:1959.11/5058. ISSN 1944-1088.
  8. ^ http://www.historyrocket.com/World-History/history-of-africa/sierra-leone-history/Brief-History-Of-Sierra-Leone.html – but they have the date as 1961, which is wrong.
  9. ^ http://www.joomag.com/magazine/calabash-issue-9-african-calabash-issue-2/0192291001397247608?page=6 This, too has the date wrong, as 1961, for by then he had been out of office for nine years.
  10. ^ https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/39433/supplement/137/data.pdf
  11. ^ "Group including Sir George Beresford-Stooke; John Llewellin, Baron Llewellin; Frederick Erroll, Baron Erroll; James Callaghan – National Portrait Gallery".
  12. ^ Beresford-Stooke, George (1 January 1954). "Sierra Leone To-Day". African Affairs. 53 (210): 56–65. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a094189. JSTOR 718727.
  13. ^ "Sir George Beresford-Stooke: A Personal Tribute". Africa. 54 (2): 91–92. 2011. doi:10.1017/S0001972000095577.
  14. ^ "KENYA DETENTION CAMPS (Hansard, 7 May 1959)".
Court offices
Preceded by
Sir Alan Hotham 		Gentleman Usher of the Blue Rod
1959–1972 		Succeeded by
Sir Anthony Abell
Retrieved from ""