Collection level description created by Marion Lowman, Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies at Rhodes House.
Sir Godfrey Yeatman Lagden, KCMG (1897), KBE (1927), was born in 1851 and educated at Sherborne School. He married Frances Rebekah Bousfield, eldest daughter of the first Bishop of Pretoria, in 1887.
Lagden entered the Civil Service in 1869 and was a clerk in the General Post Office for 8 years. In June 1877, with letters of introduction to the High Commissioner, Sir Bartle Frere, he sailed for South Africa. He became Chief Clerk to the State Secretary in the Transvaal, and acted as Secretary to the Administrator, Sir Owen Lanyon (1878-1881), and subsequently to Sir Evelyn Wood and Sir William Bellairs.
During the Egyptian Campaign of 1882-1883 Lagden was war correspondent for the
In 1892, Lagden acted as British Commissioner in Swaziland. The following year, Clarke was transferred to Zululand and Lagden succeeded him as Resident Commissioner in Basutoland, a post he held for 8 years. It was largely due to Lagden's resolve that Basutoland was kept out of the South African War of 1899.
In 1901, Lagden joined Lord Milner's administration in the Transvaal, as Commissioner for Native Affairs, and as a member of the Executive and Legislative Councils. Between 1903-1905, Lagden was chairman of the South African Native Affairs Commission on which all States of South Africa, Dutch and English, were represented. When self-government was granted to the Transvaal, in 1907, Lagden retired to England. He published a book on the history of Basutoland,
Diaries; notebooks; a letter-book containing Lagden's private letters to J.A. Spender; biographical material; correspondence; printed material (including obituary notices and tributes); papers relating to Lagden's awards, commissions and record of service; and papers relating to Lagden's book
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The library holds a card index of all manuscript collections in its reading room and a handlist is also available for this collection.
Listed as nos. 775 and 776 in
Listed in