Charles William Hobley

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C. W. Hobley (1857-1947) was a pioneering British Colonial administrator in Kenya. He served the Foreign Service in Kenya from 1894 until his retirement in 1921 and published a number of monographs on a variety of subjects.

Born in Chilvers Coton, Warwickshire, England, C.W. Hobley underwent technical education in engineering at Mason Science College (now the University of Birmingham). Sent to Mombasa by the Imperial British East Africa Company in 1890, he later became a First Class Assistant under the Foreign Office, and served the government in Kenya starting in 1894. He undertook a general tour of the whole of the Central African Lake Region (1895-96) and first arrived at Mumia's in February 1895, where he established a British administration station along Sclater's Road. In 1896, he became the first European to circumambulate Mt Elgon and the same year he arrived in the Kano Plains/Kisumu area. He oversaw a number of punitive expeditions (1894 – 1908) which were carried out to pacify hostile natives. In 1905, he married Alice Mary Turner. Ultimately, Hobley became Provincial Commissioner of Kavirondo Region (later called Nyanza Province) and later (circa 1909) sub-commissioner of Ukamba Province (stationed in Nairobi). He retired from the Foreign Service in 1921.

[edit] Publications

Something of a polymath, C.W. Hobley published on a wide variety of subjects.

  • Hobley, C. W., “Eastern Uganda, an Ethnological Survey” (Anthrop. Inst., Occasional Papers, No. I, London, 1902)
  • Hobley, Charles William , Ethnology of Akamba and other East African tribes, Cambridge: The University Press, 1910
  • Hobley, Charles William, Bantu beliefs and magic with particular reference to the Kikuyu and Kamba tribes of Kenya colony: together with some reflections on East Africa after the war (New York: Barnes & Noble, Reprinted 1967; London: H. F. & G. Witherby, Reprinted 1992).
  • Hobley, C. W., Kenya: From Chartered Company to Crown Colony (London: Frank Cass, Reprinted 1970).

[edit] References

  • Matson, A.-T. and T.F. Ofcansky, “A Bio-Bibliography of C.W Hobley”, History of Africa 8 (1981): 253-260.
  • The R.C.S. Manuscripts Collection includes the diary of Charles William Hobley, RCMS 113/47.
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