Sir John Pickersgill Rodger, (12 February 1851 – 19 September 1910) was a British colonial administrator.

Early life

Rodger was born in 1851 at

Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary. An ancient parish and latterly a metropolitan borough, it me ...

in London, the second son of Sir Robert Rodger and his wife Sophia (née Pickersgill). His father was a landowner, magistrate and Justice of the Peace who purchased Hadlow Castle in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

where the family lived, and was the

High Sheriff of Kent The high sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown (prior to 1974 the office previously known as sheriff)."Sheriffs appointed for a county or Greater London shall be known as high sheriffs, and any reference in any enactment or instrum ...

in 1865. He was educated at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, ...

, where he was in the cricket XI, and went up to Christ Church, Oxford in 1870.Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914'' (revised edition), p. 470.
Available online
at the

Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Statis ...

. Retrieved 2020-12-21.)Stapylton HC (1884) ''Eton school lists'', p.325. Eton: R Ingalton Drake.
Available online
Retrieved 2020-08-19.)
Obituaries in 1910, ''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'', 1911. Retrieved 2020-08-19.

Career

Rodger was called to the English Bar at the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and ...

in 1877 but practised little in Britain and joined the

Colonial Service The Colonial Service, also known as His/Her Majesty's Colonial Service and replaced in 1954 by Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service (HMOCS), was the British government service that administered most of Britain's overseas possessions, under the aut ...

. In 1882 he was appointed as the Chief Magistrate and Commissioner of Lands at

Selangor Selangor (; ), also known by its Arabic language, Arabic honorific Darul Ehsan, or "Abode of Sincerity", is one of the 13 Malaysian states. It is on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and is bordered by Perak to the north, Pahang to the east ...

and was the British

resident Resident may refer to: People and functions * Resident minister, a representative of a government in a foreign country * Resident (medicine), a stage of postgraduate medical training * Resident (pharmacy), a stage of postgraduate pharmaceuti ...

Pahang Pahang (; Jawi: , Pahang Hulu Malay: ''Paha'', Pahang Hilir Malay: ''Pahaeng'', Ulu Tembeling Malay: ''Pahaq)'' officially Pahang Darul Makmur with the Arabic honorific ''Darul Makmur'' (Jawi: , "The Abode of Tranquility") is a sultanate and ...

, Selangor and Perak, all in British Malaya, before being appointed as the Governor of the

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

in 1904.Sir J. Pickersgill Rodger, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'', 20 September 1910, p.11.
Available online
at The Times Digital Archive . Retrieved 2020-08-19.) He was influential in the development of infrastructure whilst in post in West Africa, including the building of a harbour at Accra and of beginning the building of a railway to serve the cocoa industry around

Kumasi Kumasi (historically spelled Comassie or Coomassie, usually spelled Kumase in Twi) is a city in the Ashanti Region, and is among the largest metropolitan areas in Ghana. Kumasi is located in a rain forest region near Lake Bosomtwe, and is t ...

. Rodger was appointed CMG in 1899 and knighted

KCMG KCMG may refer to * KC Motorgroup, based in Hong Kong, China * Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, British honour * KCMG-LP, radio station in New Mexico, USA * KCMG, callsign 1997-2001 of Los Angeles radio station KKLQ (FM) ...

in 1904.

Cricket

Rodger was a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

er who played one

first-class match First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

for Kent County Cricket Club in 1870 after leaving Eton, playing against an MCC side during

Canterbury Cricket Week Canterbury Cricket Week is the oldest cricket festival week in England and involves a series of consecutive Kent home matches, traditionally held in the first week in August. It was founded in 1842, although a similar festival week was first hel ...

. He scored a total of seven runs in the match.John Rodger
CricInfo. Retrieved 2019-03-30. Although he played some cricket at Oxford he did not make the University XI. He played club cricket for a variety of amateur sides, including MCC, Band of Brothers and the

Gentlemen of Kent Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ke ...

. His brother, William Rodger, also played for Kent.John Rodger
CricketArchive . Retrieved 2019-03-30.

Family

Rodger married Maria Tyser in 1872; the couple had one daughter. He died in September 1910 in London shortly after retiring from the Colonial Service due to ill health. He was aged 59.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodger, John Pickersgill 1851 births 1910 deaths History of Perak Administrators in British Malaya Governors of the Gold Coast (British colony) English cricketers Kent cricketers People educated at Eton College Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George