Charles Morris Woodford

Charles Morris Woodford (30 October 1852 – 4 October 1927) was a British naturalist and government minister active in the Solomon Islands. He became the first Resident Commissioner of the Solomon Islands Protectorate, serving from 1896 (three years after the establishment of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate) until 1915.

Woodford was born in Gravesend, Kent, the first son of Henry Pack Woodford, a wine merchant. He went to study at Tonbridge school where the headmaster introduced him to the study of natural history. In the early 1880s, Woodford worked for a time for the colonial government in Fiji. He undertook three journeys to the Solomons as a naturalist, and learned several of the local languages. Between 1885 and 1886 he made three unsuccessful attempts to reach the centre of Guadalcanal from his base on nearby Bara Island, to collect specimens for the British Museum.

Woodford noted the decadence of the society in the Solomon Islands following contact with labour recruiters. In his book A Naturalist Among the Head-Hunters, he noted that cannibalism and killing had become common, and deplored the lawlessness. He wrote "I know no place where firm and paternal government would sooner produce beneficial results than the Solomons...while I believe that the natives themselves would not be slow to recognise the advantages of increased security to life and property. Here is an object worthy indeed of the devotion of one's life."

Britain declared a protectorate over the islands in 1893, but did not establish a government. The High Commissioner of the British Western Pacific Territories, Sir John Bates Thurston, paid a visit, reporting that there was no means of raising revenue, and that no settled government could be established. He suggested the establishment of a Resident Deputy Commissioner, to attempt to control the firearms trade. The Colonial Office replied that the Solomons must pay for themselves, without indicating how that might be possible.

...
Wikipedia