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John Sturrock (colonial administrator)

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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

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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

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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

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

Notes

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  1. ^ a b c Debrett's Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage. Dean & Son, limited. 1931. p. 2121.
  2. ^ a b 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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b 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.