Sir George Dashwood Taubman Goldie
Title: Sir
Epithet: Founder of Nigeria (1846-1925)
Record type: Biographies
Biography: From ‘New Manx Worthies’ (2006):
George Dashwood Goldie-Taubman was born at The Nunnery mansion house on the outskirts of Douglas, son of Lt. Col. John Taubman Goldie-Taubman, Speaker of the House of Keys; his father's lineage, which had a strong military background, can be found in Burke's Landed Gentry. His grandfather and great-grandfather had both been generals in the British army, as had two other members of his family.
George stated in later life, 'I had the good fortune to lose both my parents before they could have an influence on me', though he followed on in the family tradition and passed through the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich being commissioned in the Royal Engineers. But he did not settle to army life and two years later, when a relative died and left him his fortune, he left the army 'without sending in his papers' going straight to Egypt where he fell in love with an Arab girl, and for the next three years lived in the desert in a Bedouin encampment. When she died of consumption he returned to the Isle of Man broken-hearted. But he was not a man to mourn for long, falling in love with Matilda Catherine Elliot, a Yorkshire girl who was employed at The Nunnery as a governess. He eloped with her to Paris, arriving there shortly before the Prussian Army, and the couple did not get out until the siege was lifted on 28th January 1871. This long sojourn precipitated a family scandal and compromised the lady's reputation more than a short stay might have done, so the couple married quietly at St Marylebone Church, London in July that year.
After his escapades with the Arab girl and the governess George was something of a black sheep as far as his family was concerned, and in 1877 he and Matilda were sent out to the area now known as Nigeria to look after the family investment there. During his sojourn in Egypt he had learned to speak Arabic fluently and he took a great interest in the unexplored areas lying between the rivers Nile and Niger.
Struck by the vast economic resources of the country lying behind the little-known creeks through which the great Niger wends its way to the sea, and by the feeble influence which the scattered white traders exercised, he concentrated on binding the whole commercial and political control of the region in the hands of one great British company. He worked towards this end for over 20 years, uniting the British traders, buying up or crushing out all rival interests until practically the whole of the trade of the Niger delta was in his control.
He made treaties with the innumerable petty kings of the delta and its hinterland, and when war broke out between the stubborn chiefs of Nupe and Ilorin he himself organised and conducted the military operations which ended in conquest and peace.
In the early days of trade in the Niger area the agents lived in hulks moored in midstream, which was safer than living on the river banks. Much of the trade was done by African canoes, but the traders looking further afield introduced the paddle steamer to these rivers.
George Goldie bought out the interests of the French traders and so averted the risk of a misunderstanding with France before the 1885 Conference of Berlin. Goldie successfully pitted his political ambition against that of Bismarck and the German colonising policy, and his resolute defence of British rights was fully vindicated. This agreed the colonial boundaries for sizeable parts of Africa, particularly on the Congo border and, following the subsequent Act of Berlin, implemented them. The German-sounding 'Taubman' was dropped from George's name when he was knighted in 1897 for his services to the Berlin conference which had been primarily concerned with checking the threat to Britain of German imperialism in Africa. In 1898 he was created a KCMG for his victories at Nupe and Ilorin. In the same year he was made a Privy Councillor and received honorary doctorates from both Oxford and Cambridge.
In 1886 the united commercial concerns around the Niger were established under charter from the Crown as the Royal Niger Company, with full political control over the great territory which was thus added to the British Empire; it had its own private police force, the Royal Niger Constabulary. It was, however, evidently impossible for a chartered company to hold its own against the state-supported protectorates of France and Germany and on 1st January 1900 the Royal Niger Company transferred its territories to the British government for £865,000. The ceded territory, together with the small Niger Coast Protectorate, was formed into the two protectorates of Northern and Southern Nigeria.
After the charter of the Royal Niger Company had lapsed, Sir George devoted much of his attention to the Royal Geographical Society of which he had become a member in 1877. He served on the council from 1891, becoming a Fellow in 1902 and president from 1905-1908. He had a great influence on the society and put it on a sound financial footing. The most memorable meeting under his presidency was held in the Queen's Hall on 12th January 1907, when for the first time in the history of the society, the royal patron, King Edward VII, accompanied by the Prince of Wales, was present and addressed the Fellows
He had also interested himself in local government and was an alderman on the London County Council for a number of years.
George Goldie had an extremely private nature, refusing to co-operate with biographers and historians, and he systematically destroyed every personal record in his possession. Partly because of this self-effacing attitude, his work in Africa was already half forgotten before the first decade of the 20th century was completed. His 'junior' Sir (later Lord) Frederick Lugard, encouraged by his embittered wife Flora Shaw whose proposal of marriage Goldie had turned down, was more than ready to claim the credit for Goldie's successful achievements.
A revival of interest has re-established Sir George Goldie as an empire builder to compare with Cecil Rhodes and David Livingstone. In a letter to The Times in 1935, Charles Darwin's son Leonard stated, `Goldie should always be reckoned among the three or four of our greatest Empire builders, and as one who did his work without thought of any gain for himself'.
He retired to London, but still spent some of his leisure time at The Nunnery. After 1918 he began to suffer from emphysema. He had to sleep sitting up and usually wintered in Italy. He was so weak when returning from there in 1925 that he had to be carried off the boat, and he died in a London hotel on 20th August. He was buried in Brompton Cemetery beneath a gravestone bearing the simple epitaph 'The Founder of Nigeria'
Biography written by Victor Kneale.
(With thanks to Culture Vannin as publishers of the book: Kelly, Dollin (general editor), ‘New Manx Worthies’, Manx Heritage Foundation/Culture Vannin, 2006, pp.205-6.)
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Gender: Male
Date of birth: 20 May 1846
Date of death: 20 August 1925
Name Variant: Goldie, George