- Also known as
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Charles M Woodford
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primary name: Woodford, Charles Morris
- Details
- individual; official; scientist/engineer; British; Male
- Life dates
- October 1852-October 1927
- Biography
- Self-taught naturalist, first Resident Commissioner of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate, author of books and papers on Solomon Islands, and collector of artefacts now in the British Museum. Between 1882 and 1884 he visited Fiji as a naturalist, worked for Western Pacific High Commission and as government agent on a recruiting ship visiting Gilbert and Ellis Islands. Woodford undertook visits to Solomon Islands as a naturalist from 1884 to 1889 - including: Shortland Islands, Fauro and Roviana, via Fiji and New Hebrides (May to September 1884); Roviana and Aola (February to September 1887); Roviana, Gavutu, Florida, Aola and inland Guadalcanal (August 1888to January 1889).
Married Florence Palmer of Bathurst in 1889 and in 1894 visited Fiji seeking colonial appointment to Solomon Islands and became acting Consul to Samoa in 1895.In May 1896, arrived in Solomon Islands as Deputy High Commissioner and founded the future government headquarters at Tulagi in September. In February 1897 appointed first Resident Commissioner of British Solomon Islands Protectorate and was joined in 1898 by Arthur Mahaffy as assistant.
From then until 1914 when he retired to England, corresponded frequently with Charles H. Read, Keeper of the British Museum’s ethnography collections. Majority of his collection was donated to or purchased by the Museum, of which over 400 are from Oceania and almost all of thse from Solomon Islands. They include:
Oc1915.21 to 64 (Christie collection)
Oc1929,0713, purchased from A. C. Madan (q.v.).
Oc1944,02, part of Harry Beasley's collection (2365 to 2416 in Beasley catalogue)
Artefacts collected by Woodford are also in The Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford and the Australia Museum, Sydney.
- Bibliography
- Woodford, C M 1888 Exploration in the Solomon Islands. Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society pp.351-376
Woodford, C M 1890 Further Explorations in the Solomon Islands. Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society pp.393-418
Woodford, C M 1890 A Naturalist Among the Headhunters
Woodford, C M Report on the British Solomon Islands.
Golden, G A 1993 The Early European Settlers of the Solomon Islands pp.77-81
O'Brien, Aoife, 2013, 'Charles Morris Woodford and Solomon Island' in ' Melanesia: Art & Encounter' British Museum Press.
