Sir Charles James Renault Saunders (17 October 1857 – 11 January 1931) was a South African colonial civil servant who served as the Resident Commissioner and Chief Magistrate of Zululand. He was responsible for the annexation of the territory in Southern Africa then called

Maputaland Maputaland is a natural region of Southern Africa. It is located in the northern part of the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa between Eswatini and the coast. In a wider sense it may also include the southernmost region of Mozambique. The bi ...

(now called Southern Maputaland or the Elephant coast of

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...

). He set up magistracies in Ubombo and

Ingwavuma Ingwavuma is a town in the Umkhanyakude District Municipality of KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. It is unclear where the name of the town came from; one theory is that it was named after the Ngwavuma River while another is that there was ...

. He was the son of James Renault Saunders, an important sugar plantation owner of Tongaat in Natal and of

Katherine Saunders Katherine Saunders (or Katharine; later, Katherine Cooper; 1841-1894) was an English novelist of the Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, ...

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

collector and

botanical artist Botanical illustration is the art of depicting the form, color, and details of plant species, frequently in watercolor paintings. They must be scientifically accurate but often also have an artistic component and may be printed with a botanical ...

in the

Colony of Natal The Colony of Natal was a British colony in south-eastern Africa. It was proclaimed a British colony on 4 May 1843 after the British government had annexed the Boer Republic of Natalia, and on 31 May 1910 combined with three other colonies to ...

. Like his mother, Sir Charles collected plants and a number of species are named after him, including ''

Pachypodium saundersii ''Pachypodium saundersii'', the kudu lily, is a succulent plant of the family Apocynaceae. It was named in honour of Sir Charles James Renault Saunders (1857–1931), the Natal Province civil servant and casual plant collector. It is found ...

'' and ''

Ornithogalum saundersiae ''Ornithogalum saundersiae'', or giant chincherinchee, is a species of ''Ornithogalum'' (star of Bethlehem) in the subfamily Scilloideae of family Asparagaceae. Description ''Ornithogalum saundersiae'' is a perennial, herbaceous bulbous p ...

''. 426 plants were contributed to Kew Gardens between 1881 and 1889. 16 plant species were named in honour of Katherine Saunders and family members by Kew Gardens.

"Sir Charles was among the important public servants in Natal, a Zulu linguist of note and an authority on Zulu law and custom. 1876 Saunders became and administrator of native law. In 1887 he went to Tongoland and there ratified a treaty between the ruler and the British government. In the following years he was directed to define the boundary between Tongaland and Zululand, and in 1895 he took over the Ingwavuma district for the British crown. When Zululand was annexed to Natal in 1897 he became chief magistrate of the territory. He was Knighted in 1907 and retired fromr the public service before the Union. The Zulus called him ''uMashiqela'', meaning the autocrat, and by his work over thirty years he was one of the men who made Natal."LANTERN PUBLICATION, March 1974.

Kathleen Carola (died 1945), only daughter of the Lady Saunders of Melmoth and Sir Charles Saunders, married Philip Edward Laughton of Dundee. Sir Charles Saunders is buried in

Eshowe Eshowe is the oldest town of European settlement in Zululand, historically also known as Eziqwaqweni, Ekowe or kwaMondi. Eshowe's name is said to be inspired by the sound of wind blowing through the more than 4 km² of the indigenous Dlinza ...

References

1857 births 1931 deaths Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Resident Commissioners in Zululand South African politicians {{KwaZuluNatal-politician-stub