Herbert Taylor John Ussher (22 April 1836 – 2 December 1880) was a British colonial administrator who became

Governor of the Gold Coast This is a list of colonial administrators in the Gold Coast (modern Ghana) from the start of English presence in 1621 until Ghana's independence from the United Kingdom in 1957. In addition to the Gold Coast Colony, the governor of the Gold Coast ...

(now Ghana). In private life, he was a keen naturalist and wrote ''"Notes on the ornithology of the Gold Coast"''. He was the son of Thomas Neville Ussher, Consul General of Haiti (and son of Rear-Admiral Sir

Thomas Ussher Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Ussher KCH CB (1779 – 6 January 1848) was an Anglo-Irish officer of the British Royal Navy who served with distinction during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and who in 1814 conveyed Napoleon Bonapart ...

), and his wife Eliza Fawcett. On joining the colonial service he sailed for West Africa in 1864 to become the Private Secretary of the Governor of Lagos. Ussher was subsequently made Collector of Customs in 1866 and then Administrator of the Cape Coast from 1867 to 1872. He was invested a

Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, George III, King George III. ...

(CMG) in the

1872 Birthday Honours The 1872 Birthday Honours were appointments by Queen Victoria to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the British Empire. The appointments were made to celebrate the official birthday of the Queen, and wer ...

. He was then appointed

Governor of Tobago This article lists governors of Tobago. Governors of Tobago have been referred to by the formal titles of "Governor" and "Lieutenant-Governor". For governors of the united Trinidad and Tobago after 1889 see List of Governors of Trinidad and Tobago ...

for 1872–1875 and

Governor of Labuan The Governor of Labuan was the appointed head of the government of Labuan. From 1848 to 1890, the governors were appointed by the British authorities in London. When the administration was taken over by the North Borneo Chartered Company in 18 ...

(islands off the coast of Borneo) before returning to be

from June 1879 until his death in December 1880. He died in Christiansborg Castle in Accra and was buried in the London Market Cemetery in James Town, Accra. He had married Julie Sarah Hicks née Bond in 1854 and had a daughter, Constance.

Ussher Fort Ussher Fort is a fort in Accra, Ghana. It was built by the Dutch in 1649 as Fort Crèvecœur, and is a day's march from Elmina and to the east of Accra on a rocky point between two lagoons. It was one of three forts that Europeans built in the regi ...

, previously known as Fort Crèvecoeur, was renamed in his honour when the British gained possession of it in 1868. The Rufous Fishing Owl, ('' Scotopelia ussheri'') was named in his honour by

Richard Bowdler Sharpe Richard Bowdler Sharpe (22 November 1847 – 25 December 1909) was an English zoologist and ornithologist who worked as curator of the bird collection at the British Museum of natural history. In the course of his career he published several mono ...

, after Ussher provided the

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wiktionary:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to a ...

to him.

References

, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Ussher, Herbert Taylor 1836 births 1880 deaths British colonial governors and administrators in Africa Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Governors of the Gold Coast (British colony) British naturalists