Archibald Ross Colquhoun ( ; March 1848 – 18 December 1914) was a British explorer and the first Administrator of Southern Rhodesia. He held office from October 1890 until September 1892, the period of the founding of Fort Salisbury (now

Harare Harare ( ), formerly Salisbury, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of , a population of 1,849,600 as of the 2022 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census and an estimated 2,487,209 people in its metrop ...

) after the arrival of the

Pioneer Column The Pioneer Column was a force raised by Cecil Rhodes and his British South Africa Company in 1890 and used in his efforts to annex the territory of Mashonaland, later part of Zimbabwe (once Southern Rhodesia). Background Rhodes was anxious to ...

. At this time the administrator's jurisdiction covered

Mashonaland Mashonaland is a region in northeastern Zimbabwe. It is home to nearly half of the population of Zimbabwe. The majority of the Mashonaland people are from the Shona tribe while the Zezuru and Korekore dialects are most common. Harare is the larg ...

only, as

Matabeleland Matabeleland is a region located in southwestern Zimbabwe that is divided into three provinces: Matabeleland North, Bulawayo, and Matabeleland South. These provinces are in the west and south-west of Zimbabwe, between the Limpopo and Zambezi ...

was annexed in 1893. He was also acting Chief Magistrate of Southern Rhodesia between 24 July 1891 and 18 September 1891.

Career

Colquhoun was born at sea off the coast of South Africa in March 1848, and spent much of his life travelling. In the 1880s he took part in several exploratory expeditions to

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

Indo-China Mainland Southeast Asia (historically known as Indochina and the Indochinese Peninsula) is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to th ...

and southern China, for which he was awarded the 1884

Founder's Medal The Founder's Medal is a medal awarded annually by the Royal Geographical Society, upon approval of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom, to individuals for "the encouragement and promotion of geographical science and discovery". Foundation From ...

of the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

. He left for

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

in 1889. After his term of office as Administrator in

Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia was a self-governing British Crown colony in Southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally known as South ...

he settled in the United Kingdom, but continued to travel. From 1900 to 1901, he and his new wife Ethel travelled in the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

—the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

, Philippines, Japan – returning to England via

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

. From 1902 to 1903, he travelled in the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

and the United States. During 1904 and 1905, he returned temporarily to Rhodesia. In 1913, Colquhoun inspected the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal () is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. It cuts across the narrowest point of the Isthmus of Panama, and is a Channel (geography), conduit for maritime trade between th ...

construction work and carried out one last mission for the

Royal Colonial Institute The Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS) is a non-governmental organisation with a mission to promote the value of the Commonwealth and the values upon which it is based. The Society upholds the values of the Commonwealth Charter, promoting confl ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

before his death in London on 18 December 1914.

Family

Colquhoun married at St. Paul's church,

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, England. It is located about south of Stoke-on-Trent, north of Wolverhampton, and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 71,673 at the 2021–2022 United Kingd ...

, on 8 March 1900 to Ethel Maud Cookson (1874–1950), eldest daughter of Samuel Cookson, of Forebridge, Stafford. After his death, his widow remarried John Tawse Jollie and settled in Southern Rhodesia, where she became the first female parliamentarian in the British overseas empire.

References

Bibliography

* ''Across Chrysê: Being the Narrative of a Journey of Exploration Through the South China Border Lands from Canton to Mandalay'' (1883)
Volume 1Volume 2

''Amongst the Shans'' (1885)
* ''English policy in the Far east, 'The Times' special correspondence'' (1885)
Volume 3

''Matabeleland: the war, and our position in South Africa'' (1894)
*
China in Transformation with maps and diagrams
(1898), Harper & Bros edition.
New edition, British library, 2011
).
''The Key of the Pacific'' (1895)

''Overland to China'' (1900)
* Colquhoun, Archibald R. (Archibald Ross) (1900)
The problem in China and British policy
London: King.
University of Hong Kong Libraries, Digital Initiatives, China Through Western Eyes

''Greater America'' (1904)

''The Africander Land'' (1906)
* ''The Whirlpool of Europe: Austria-Hungary and the Habsburgs'' (1907)
''Dan to Beersheba: Work and Travel in Four Continents'' (1908)
* Lowry, Donal (June 1997). "'White Woman's Country': Ethel Tawse Jollie ee Ethel Colquhounand the Making of White Rhodesia". ''Journal of Southern African Studies''. 23 (2). JSTOR 2637621.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Colquhoun, A. R. 1848 births 1914 deaths Rhodesian politicians Politicians from Cape Town British explorers of Africa 19th-century British explorers Explorers of Asia Explorers of China