| Sir Frederick Mitchell Hodgson KCMG | |
|---|---|
| Governor of Gold Coast | |
| In office 29 May 1898 – 29 August 1900 |
|
| Preceded by | William Edward Maxwell |
| Succeeded by | Matthew Nathan |
| Governor of Barbados | |
| In office 18 February 1900 – 1904 |
|
| Preceded by | James Shaw Hay |
| Succeeded by | Gilbert Thomas Carter |
| Governor of British Guiana | |
| In office 26 September 1904 – 5 July 1912 |
|
| Preceded by | James Alexander Swettenham |
| Succeeded by | Walter Egerton |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1851 |
| Died | 1928 |
| Nationality | British |
Sir Frederick Mitchell Hodgson (1851–1925) was a British colonial administrator who was Governor of the Gold Coast (1898–1900), Barbados (1900–1904) and British Guiana (1904–1911).
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Hodgson was the son of the Reverend Octavius Arthur Hodgson, Rector of East Stoke, Dorset, England. He joined the General Post Office, and worked in the Savings Bank department between 1868 and 1869. He was Postmaster General of British Guiana from 1882 to 1888.
Hodgson was appointed Colonial Secretary of Gold Coast from 1888-1898. In 1892 he raised the Gold Coast Rifle Volunteers, and was Major commanding this force. Hodgson was Governor and Commander in Chief of Gold Coast from 1898 to 1900. He was appointed K.C.M.G. on 3 June 1899.
The 1896 British expedition against the Ashanti led by Sir Francis Scott had entered Coomassie and forced King Prempeh to submit, with all his treasures being seized except the Golden Stool of Ashanti, which had been hidden. The Golden Stool was said to be an immense throne of solid gold. The other treasures were taken to London, where they were greatly admired for their artistic workmanship.[1] When the Asante demanded more political autonomy and the return of Prempeh, who had been banished, Hodgson justified British rule on the grounds that autonomy would lead to a return to the traffic in slaves. He told them: "As regards the buying of slaves, black men may regard themselves as no better than cattle, to be brought and sold as opportunity offered or as circumstances dictated, but the white man [does] not and would not regard them so". In this view of the more humane attitudes of white men, Hodgson ignored the Atlantic slave trade, which had ended only a generation earlier.[2]
In 1899 Hodgson sent his private secretary, Captain Armitage, on a secret expedition to find the golden stool. The expedition succeeded only in arousing the suspicions of the Asante. In April 1900 Hodgson summoned the Asante Chiefs to an assembly at Kumasi. He asked them: "What must I do to the man, whoever he is, who has failed to give to the Queen, who is the paramount power in the country, the stool to which she is entitled? Where is the Golden Stool? Why am I not sitting on the Golden Stool at this moment? I am the representative of the paramount power in this country; why have you relegated me to this chair? Why did you not take the opportunity of my coming to Kumasi to bring the Golden Stool and give it to me to sit upon?" The chiefs listened in silence, then went home to prepare for war.[3]
Hodgson found himself besieged in the fort at Kumasi. The fort was impregnable to Asante weapons, and defended by machine guns and artillery in the fort's turrets.[4] On 15 May a force of 170 African soldiers and three British officers reached the fort after marching 238 miles from the north, bringing food and ammunition.[5] A relief expedition was dispatched from the coast, but moved slowly.[6] The Asante constructed massive barricades of logs, dirt and stones across the roads, strong enough to be impervious to artillery fire, with fortified and entrenched flanks.[7] After help had finally arrived, Hodgson managed to break out and reached Cape Coast Castle by July 1900, leaving a small garrison behind. Some lives were lost in the escape.[6] His wife, Lady Mary Alice Hodgson, nee Young, who was the first English lady to visit Ashanti, wrote "The Siege of Kumassi" an account of the siege and of the subsequent march to the coast.[8]
Sir Frederick was appointed Governor of Barbados, succeeded by Major Matthew Nathan. On 26 September 1901 the Ashanti kingdom was formally annexed by Britain.[9] Queen Yaa Asantewa's forces were defeated on 30 September and she was captured soon after. Future British administrators were more tactful than Hodgson, and eventually Prempe was restored to his throne and sat again on the Golden Stool.[10]
Hodgson was Governor and Commander in Chief of Barbados from 1900 to 1904 . He was Governor of British Guiana from 1904 to 1911. In August 1904 Hodgson had to deal with an incident in which the Venezuelan authorities had arrested some miners whom they claimed had strayed across the border from Guiana. The men were released, but Hodgson made it clear that his government would not in future assist miners who violated Venezuelan laws.[11]
In 1905, Hodgson intervened with sugar plantation owners in Guiana, persuading them to reverse wage increases. He was concerned that such increases would cause "trouble" throughout the colonial sugar industry.[12] At the end of November 1905 dock workers in Georgetown went on strike for higher wages, and began rioting and looting stores. On 1 December Hodgson met with members of the Georgetown City Council who had agreed to represent the strikers. He addressed a large crowd, promising to investigate their grievances if they would disperse. The rioters refused, and over the next three days disturbances continued. Two warships arrived on 4 December with a contingent of soldiers who restored calm. In the aftermath several hundred people were arrested and charged, with some being flogged and others spending time in jail. No wage increase was granted.[13]
Hodgson caused some controversy in April 1908 when he invited Sir Joseph Godfrey, the District Grand Master of the Masonic Lodge, Surgeon General, and a leading member of the Executive Council, to lay the foundation stone of the new Carnegie Library building in Georgetown. The Roman Catholics strongly objected, but the governor went ahead.[14] On 23 December 1911 Hodgson was appointed an officer of the new masonic lodge called the Royal Colonial Institute.[15]
In June 1910 Hodgson ordered that the small island of "Kyk-Over-Al", at the junction of the Mazaruni and Cuyuni Rivers, be cleared of its overgrowth. This revealed the remains of a Dutch fort from the late 16th century, including stone ramparts and brick pavements and relics such as bottles and clay pipes. The modern relevance was that it established the British claim to the island as successors to the Dutch.[16]