Geoffrey Francis Taylor Colby

Geoffrey Francis Taylor Colby
Sir Geoffrey Francis Taylor Colby
Governor of Nyasaland
In office March 1948 – March 1956
Preceded by	Edmund Charles Smith Richards
Succeeded by	Robert Perceval Armitage
Personal details
Born	25 March 1901
Died	22 December 1958(1958-12-22) (aged 57)
Nationality	British

Sir Geoffrey Francis Taylor Colby KCMG (March 25, 1901 – December 22, 1958) was a British colonial administrator who was Governor of the protectorate of Nyasaland between 1948 and 1956. He fought unsuccessfully against creation of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

Colby was born on 25 March 1901, son of a doctor, and was raised in Woking Surrey, England. He attended St Wilfred's, a preparatory school, at Bexhill-on-Sea between the ages of seven and thirteen, and in 1914 went on to Charterhouse, a school that taught the virtues of leadership, public service and keeping a cool head in emergencies. An excellent sportsman, he played both cricket (in the 1st XI) and football for the school. Colby retained a passion for cricket throughout his life. It was said that when Governor of Nyasaland he delayed a meeting of his executive council for half an hour so he could listen to the closing overs of a test match. Colby won an open scholarship to Clare College at the University of Cambridge, as well as a leaving exhibition from Charterhouse, where he read Natural Sciences (Chemistry) from 1919, taking a third-class degree in 1922. He played poker and tennis and owned a Norton motorcycle which he used to go on trips to London. He was also known quite frequently to climb into college after hours up a wall which was considered by a fellow undergraduate and Alpine mountaineer to be a difficult and dangerous climb .

After leaving university, Colby spent a year as an assistant master at his old prep school, and a year working in a fellmongers factory at Galashiels. He then applied for an appointment in the Colonial Service, and was posted to Nigeria in 1925. In Nigeria he was first a District Officer in the Northern region at a salary of £500, with £60 advanced for essential equipment. His duties involved lengthy tours on horseback in the hot, dry climate of the North to check on tax collection, the courts and public works. His health during this period was poor, and he always had a jaundiced appearance, perhaps in part due to poor diet.