Sidney Shippard

Sir Sidney Godolphin Alexander Shippard , KCMG (born May 29, 1837 in Brussels , † March 29, 1902 in London ) was a British colonial administrator .

biography

Shippard joined the judicial service of the British colonial administration after studying law and was Attorney General of Griqualand West from 1875 to 1877 and then until 1878 criminal judge at the Higher Court of Griqualand. In 1880 he was appointed judge at the Cape Colony Supreme Court (Cape Supreme Court). He worked there until 1885.

After the formal takeover of British Bechuanaland on October 23, 1885, he became the first administrator of the newly created protectorate .

He was a staunch supporter of Cecil Rhodes' plans to expand British influence to the north in order to forestall possible influence by the German Empire and the Boers . In 1887 he urged the High Commissioner of South Africa, Sir Hercules Robinson, not to sanction a treaty between the King of Matabeleland and Mashonaland Lobengula and the representative of the Transvaal Piet Grobler . For his services he was beaten Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1887 and has since been named "Sir".

In February 1888 he asked Sir Hercules Robinson to send the Reverend John Smith Moffat to negotiate a treaty with King Lobengula, in which the king was asked not to give up any territories without British consent. Because of the reputation of Moffat's father Robert Moffat , this peace and friendship treaty was actually concluded. Subsequently, Shippard succeeded in October 1888 in persuading King Lobengula to guarantee the agent of Cecil Rhodes, Charles Rudd , a concession for mining in the Matabele Kingdom. This by a letter of protection ( Royal Charter ) of Queen Victoria approved method provided the foundation for the establishment of the British South Africa Company (British South Africa Company, BSAC) in the year 1889th

After the incorporation of British Bechuanaland into the Cape Colony on November 16, 1895, his position as administrator of the previous protectorate was abolished.

In December 1895 he was suspected of being involved in the so-called Jameson Raid by Leander Jameson for the submission of the Boer republics of the Transvaal and Orange Free State to direct British colonial rule, as he had previously asked two chiefs of the Protectorate in 1894 to relocate their areas near the To place the border with the Transvaal under the administration of the BSAC. Pitasani , from where the ultimately miserably failed Jameson Raid began , also belonged to these areas . At the beginning of the incident, however, he was in Johannesburg and rumored to have asked the Johannesburg Reform Committee there, which included prominent supporters of the attack, to lay down his arms.

He then went to England and in 1898 became director of the British South Africa Society (BSAC).

Web links

• rulers.org (English)