George Heaton Nicholls, PC (1876 – 25 September 1959) was a British-born South African politician.

Biography

Born in England, Nicholls served with the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

in India, and saw action in the Burma and

Tirah Tirah, also spelled Terah (), also called the Tirah Valley (), is a mountainous region located in the Orakzai District and the southern part of the Khyber District, positioned between the Khyber Pass and the Khanki Valley in Pakistan. Due to ...

campaigns. He came to South Africa from

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

during the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic and ...

. He joined the

British South Africa Police The British South Africa Police (BSAP) was, for most of its existence, the police force of Southern Rhodesia and Rhodesia (renamed Zimbabwe in 1980). It was formed as a paramilitary force of mounted infantrymen in 1889 by Cecil Rhodes' Britis ...

in 1902, and accompanied Chief Lewanika to the

coronation of King Edward VII The coronation of the British monarch, coronation of Edward VII and his wife, Alexandra of Denmark, Alexandra, as King of the United Kingdom, king and List of British royal consorts, queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, ...

. He served as District Commissioner in

North-Western Rhodesia North-Western Rhodesia, in south-central Africa, was a territory administered from 1891 until 1899 under charter by the British South Africa Company. In 1890 the British South Africa Company signed a treaty with King Lewanika of the Barotse, on ...

and Magistrate for the

Territory of Papua The Territory of Papua comprised the southeastern quarter of the island of New Guinea from 1883 to 1975. In 1883, the Government of Queensland annexed this territory for the British Empire. The United Kingdom Government refused to ratify the ...

. Returning to South Africa to engage in sugar farming in Umfolozi, Nicholls was elected to the

Union Parliament The Union Parliament () was the bicameral legislature of the Union of Burma from 1948 to 1962, when it was disbanded by the Union Revolutionary Council. It consisted of an upper house, the Chamber of Nationalities and a lower house, the Chamb ...

for the Zululand constituency in 1920. He was leader of the Natal Parliamentary Group during its existence. A

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

in 1939 and from 1948 to 1954, Nicholls was a member of the Indian Round Table Conference, Cape Town, the Indian Colonization Commission; and a permanent member of the Native Affairs Commission. He was Administrator of Natal from 1942 to 1944, High Commissioner for the Union of South Africa in London from 1944 to 1947, head of the South African delegation to the preparatory conference and Assembly of the United Nations in London in 1946, then a delegate to the UN Assembly, New York. He represented South Africa at the inauguration of the

Parliament of Ceylon The Parliament of Ceylon was the legislative body of British Ceylon & Dominion of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) established in 1947 by the Soulbury Constitution, prior to independence on 4 February 1948. Parliament replaced the State Council of Ceylon. ...

in 1948. He was sworn of the Privy Council the same year.

Books / Further Reading

References

George Heaton Nicholls papers , Campbell Collections

Nicholls, Senator Rt Hon. George Heaton, (1876–25 Sept. 1959), PC 1948
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nicholls, George Heaton 1876 births 1959 deaths British emigrants to South Africa British Army officers British South Africa Police officers High commissioners of South Africa to the United Kingdom South African farmers South African members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Members of the Senate of South Africa Members of the House of Assembly (South Africa) British military personnel of the Tirah campaign British people in colonial India