Charles Calvert Bowring
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Sir Charles Calvert Bowring KCMG KBE |
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| Acting Governor of the East African Protectorate | |
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In office 1917–1919 |
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| Preceded by | Henry Conway Belfield |
| Succeeded by | Edward Northey |
| Governor of Nyasaland | |
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In office 27 March 1924 – 30 May 1929 |
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| Preceded by | Richard Sims Donkin Rankine |
| Succeeded by | Wilfred Bennett Davidson-Houston |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1872 |
| Died | 1945 |
Sir Charles Calvert Bowring KCMG KBE (1872–1945) was a British colonial administrator.
Bowring was educated at Clifton College, and entered the colonial service in 1890. In 1909 he married Ethel Dorothy Watts, daughter of G. K. Watts; they had four sons and three daughters.
Bowring was appointed Treasurer of the East African Protectorate (EAP) in 1901, and Chief Secretary to the Government in 1911. He was Chief Secretary for the EAP, later renamed Kenya, from 1911 until 1924, when he was appointed Governor of Nyasaland. During this period he was also a Grand Deacon of the Grand Lodge of Freemasons.
In October 1912 Bowring was appointed to a commission on labor in the EAP. The report was published in 1913, containing written and aural submissions from over two hundred Europeans and sixty Africans. Much of this evidence had been called a "concerted display of negrophobe malevolence".
Between 1917 and 1919 Bowring was acting Governor of the East African Protectorate. Bowring became acting governor of the EAP at a time when the colony was recovering from famine, there was a shortage of manpower and settlers were becoming increasingly assertive. Bowring was not always favorable to settlers, pushed measures that could benefit the African population and was less bigoted than most about the Indian immigrants. However, when face to face with settlers he often gave in to their demands.
Bowring was opposed to extending the franchise beyond the settlers. He said "I am in entire agreement that it would be undesirable to extend the franchise to Asiatics and Natives. In the special circumstances affecting this protectorate, it is in my opinion essential that each race shall be separately represented and that any general scheme of franchise embracing all British subjects would be most unsuitable because of the complete difference in the education, mental development, standard of living, local interests, and in fact the whole social fabric of the various races which constitute the local community of British subjects and British protected subjects".
He supported the idea of two nominated Indians and one African on the legislative council.
In response to a financial crisis in the colony, he proposed to increase the hut and poll taxes. Despite resistance from the Colonial Office, he pushed the measure through, to take effect in the 1920-1921 fiscal year. Although supporting the idea of settling veterans of World War I in the colony, he pointed out that there were shortages both of land and of labor, and said that settlers should have capital of more than ₤500. He was strongly in favor of extending the railway across the Uasin Gishu plateau for the benefit of the settlers in that area.
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