X-Nico

3 unusual facts about Colonial Office


John Francis Yaxley

John Francis Yaxley (born 13 November 1936) Birmingham, England, spent his career as a civil servant in the UK Colonial Office.

Kingdom of Sarawak

After the World War II, Vyner Brooke ceded Sarawak to the Colonial Office for a sizeable pension for him and his three daughters.

Roland Warpole Loane

He took his complaints to England and prosecuted in person, displaying rancour, exaggeration and disregard of evidence which did not impress the Colonial Office.


Arthur Grimble

After joining the Colonial Office, he became a cadet administrative officer in the Gilberts (1914) and became Resident Commissioner of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony in 1926.

Carib Territory

In 1902, Henry Hesketh Bell, the Administrator of Dominica, sent a lengthy report to the Colonial Office on the state of the Carib people after he had visited its communities.

Eirene White, Baroness White

When Labour came to power under Harold Wilson in 1964, White became parliamentary under-secretary at the Colonial Office, in 1966 Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and in 1967 Minister of State at the Welsh Office for three years.

Gairdner River

Roe named the river after Gordon Gairdner, Senior Clerk of the Australian and Eastern Departments in the Colonial Office, later Chief Clerk of the Colonial Office and Secretary and Registrar of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George.

Giorgio Borġ Olivier

During his stay in London, Borġ Olivier presented a memorandum to the Minister of State for Colonial Affairs, Henry Hopkinson, explaining the Maltese government's position that Malta ought be transferred from the Colonial Office to the Commonwealth Office, as an independent dominion within the Commonwealth.

John Hugh Saffery

From 1955 to 1957 Saffery served as Flying Manager and Deputy Leader of the Falkland Islands Dependencied Aerial Survey Expedition (FIDASE), carried out by Hunting Aerosurveys Ltd on behalf of the Colonial Office.

Proclamation of Governor Bourke

The Proclamation of Governor Bourke was a document written by Sir Richard Bourke, KCB, the Governor of New South Wales, and issued by the British Colonial Office on 26 August 1835.

Provincial Secretary and Registrar of Ontario

The provincial secretary was also responsible for official communications between the provincial government and the Colonial Office in London as well as with other provincial and colonial governments (and after 1867 the federal government).

Secessionism in Western Australia

In early 1900, Walter Griffiths travelled to London on behalf of the Eastern Goldfields Reform League executive, to present the petition to the British government and lobby the Colonial Office to either approve Auralia's separation, or force Western Australia to accept Federation.


see also

Abraham Logan

Also a prominent lawyer, having studied law in Edinburgh, Logan played a significant role in the historic transfrerral of the Straits Settlement to the Colonial Office.

Charles Matinga

This was seen as a betrayal by NAC leaders such as Matinga and James Frederick Sangala, who thought the Colonial Office was discarding the principle that African interests were paramount, instead favoring White colonists.

Colonial Secretary

Secretary of State for the Colonies, the British Cabinet minister who headed the Colonial Office, commonly referred to as Colonial Secretary

Norman Walker

Hugh Norman-Walker (1916–1985), officer in the British Colonial Office

Onn Jaafar

Sultan Ibrahim approached the colonial office and expressed his withdrawal of support for the proposal scheme, but this did not appease the political dissidents and Onn continued to organise more rallies in the other Malay states to muster further support for his calls against the Malayan Union, and formed United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) in May.