Sir Edmund Charles Smith Richards (1889-1955) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

colonial administrator who was Resident Commissioner of

Basutoland Basutoland was a British Crown colony that existed from 1884 to 1966 in present-day Lesotho. Though the Basotho (then known as Basuto) and their territory had been under British control starting in 1868 (and ruled by Cape Colony from 1871), th ...

from 1935 to 1942 and

Governor of Nyasaland List of Colonial Heads of Malawi (Nyasaland) (Dates in italics indicate ''de facto'' continuation of office) For continuation after independence, ''see: '' List of heads of state of Malawi References See also *History of Malawi *Governor-Ge ...

from 1942 to 1947.

Career outline

Edmund Charles Smith Richards was born on 6 October 1889. After joining the colonial service, he rose steadily through the ranks, becoming a district commissioner in 1923, assistant secretary for native affairs in 1927, deputy provincial commissioner in 1928, provincial commissioner in 1931, deputy chief secretary in 1934, acting chief secretary in 1934 and resident commissioner, Basutoland from 1935 to 1942. Richards became Governor of Nyasaland in August 1942, retiring in March 1947. He died in 1955.

Central African Council

A Central African Council was created in 1945 to coordinate research activities, economic policies and the transport and communication systems of Nyasaland,

Northern Rhodesia Northern Rhodesia was a British protectorate in southern Africa, south central Africa, now the independent country of Zambia. It was formed in 1911 by Amalgamation (politics), amalgamating the two earlier protectorates of Barotziland-North-West ...

and

Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia was a landlocked self-governing British Crown colony in southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally kn ...

. Richards saw no particular value to Nyasaland in the council. Sir

Stewart Gore-Browne Lieutenant Colonel Sir Stewart Gore-Browne (3 May 1883 – 4 August 1967), called Chipembele by Zambians, was a soldier, pioneer white settler, builder, politician and supporter of independence in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). Early life ...

of Northern Rhodesia objected to the name since no Africans were represented. Talking of the first session, Gore-Browne described Richards as an "ill-mannered oaf". The key topic discussed by the council was that of recruitment and treatment of Native labor. Nyasaland was the main supplier of non-indigenous African laborers to Southern Rhodesia. The main debate was between Richards and the prime minister of Southern Rhodesia,

Godfrey Huggins Godfrey Martin Huggins, 1st Viscount Malvern (6 July 1883 – 8 May 1971), was a Rhodesian politician and physician. He served as the fourth Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia from 1933 to 1953 and remained in office as the first Prime Minis ...

. Although the council had no power to make a decision on the subject, the two men both freely aired their views. Richards was initially hostile to the idea of establishing joint services to serve the three colonies, but later came round to the idea of extending services such as Civil Aviation and the Court of Appeal from Southern Rhodesia to also cover the northern territories.

Other Nyasaland issues

One of the issues Richards had to deal with was that of education of the Africans. In 1945, Richards received a memorandum from the newly formed

Nyasaland African Congress The Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) was an organisation that evolved into a political party in Nyasaland during the colonial period. The NAC was suppressed in 1959, but was succeeded in 1960 by the Malawi Congress Party, which went to on decisiv ...

(NAC) saying the members disliked sending their boys to the college at

Makerere Makerere ( ) is a neighborhood in the city of Kampala, Uganda's capital city. The name also applies to the hill on which this neighborhood is perched; one of the original seven hills that constituted Kampala at the time of its founding, in the e ...

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

"because the standard of education attained is lower than that attained in South African Schools...". The age limit system was also an issue with primary education. Under this system, children could not enroll if they were too old, and without birth certifications they were subject to arbitrary estimates of whether they were young enough to attend school. Girls suffered in particular when they were unable to start education early for reasons that were out of their control. Richards did nothing to resolve the problem, but supported age limits. On 15 February 1946, Richards sent proposals to the Colonial Office to change the method of selecting members of the legislative council. These included introducing elections for the European "unofficial" members (members other than civil servants), and giving the unofficial members the majority.

References

Sources * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Richards, Edmund Charles Smith Governors of Nyasaland 1889 births 1955 deaths Resident Commissioners in Basutoland Basutoland in World War II