Sir Arnold Wienholt Hodson
(1881 – 1944) was a British
colonial administrator.n He was educated at
Felsted
.
Hodson was
born in Bovey
Tracey
, Devonshire
, in 1881. He was the eldest son of Algernon
Hodson and Sarah Wienholt.
Hodson was in
Central Queensland
1900 to 1902 and was part of the Queensland Contingent for
South Africa in 1902.
He served in the
Transvaal
1902-04.
From 1904 until 1912 he was in the
Bechuanaland Protectorate Police
Force. His duties as a policeman and magistrate took him into the
most remote parts of the territory, one of the his missions being
the
Damaraland frontier at the time of
the Herero and Nama Wars in German South-West Africa. He was also
much involved in trying to reconcile conflicts between tribal
chiefs.
His several political missions cover a most
important period of the history of Botswana
.
One of his
journeys, in 1906, was made in the company of Sir Ralph Williams,
Resident Commissioner, and was from Serowe
to Livingstone and the Victoria Falls
via Lake
Ngami
. Four years later Hodson organised a hunting
trip for High Commissioner Selborne, from Pandamatenga
to Selous' old camp on the Mabebe Flats and on to
the Chobe.
He then
went on to Somaliland
1912-14. He served as Consul in Southern Abyssinia
(now Ethiopia) 1914-23, then Consul in South West
Abyssinia from 1923-1926.
He was
Governor of the Falkland
Islands
1926-30. During his tenure, a mountain - Mount Hodson
(56°42'S, 27°13'W) - the summit of Visokoi Island
in the South
Sandwich Islands - was named after him.
He was
Governor of Sierra
Leone
1930-1934, where he was known as the 'Sunshine
Governor' and was responsible for the creation of the Sierra Leone
Broadcasting Service, which launched on 7 May
1934. That same year he was
knighted.
Finally,
he was Governor of the Gold
Coast (now Ghana
)
1934-1941.
He was the author of a number of books:
- Trekking the Great thirst: travel and sport in the Kalahari
Desert. London: T.F. Unwin.
- An elementary and practical grammar of the Galla or Oromo
language. London: Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge.
- Seven years in Southern Abyssinia. [London]: T.F.
Unwin.
- Where lion reign: an account of lion hunting and
exploration in South West Abyssinia. London: Skeffington and
Son Ltd.
Hodson also wrote a play called 'The downfall of Zachariah
Fee'.
Hodson married Elizabeth Charlotte Sarah Hay, daughter of Major
Malcolm Vivian Hay in 1928. They had two daughters, Rose and
Elizabeth. He died on the 26th May 1944 ('Who was who' 1980,
p.550).