Captain Sir Donald William Stewart KCMG (1860 – 1 October 1905) was a British military officer and Commissioner of the East Africa Protectorate
Early life[edit]
He was born in London, the son of Sir Donald Stewart, 1st Baronet, a former Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army.
Career[edit]
Stewart followed his father into the army and was commissioned with the Gordon Highlanders. He served in India and between 1879 and 1880 took part in the Second Anglo-Afghan War, during which he was severely injured.[1] He went on to serve in the First Boer War in 1881 and the Mahdist War between 1884 and 1885.[2] He left the army in 1888.[1]
In 1894 he was sent to Kumasi on the Gold Coast as a political agent. In 1896 he became the first British Resident in Kumasi, and served during the Second Ashanti Expedition.[3] He remained on the Gold Coast until August 1904, when he was made Commissioner of the East Africa Protectorate.[4][5] At the beginning of his term he was involved in discussions with the Maasai over land rights and signed the First Maasai Treaty in 1904.[6] His tenure, however, was short-lived and he died while in Nairobi from pneumonia on 1 October 1905.[1] He is buried at Nairobi South Cemetery.
Personal life[edit]
In 1889 he met his wife Cora Howarth while in New York. They were married in London the following year, but by 1892 she had left him for another man.[1]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d Wertheim, Stanley (1997), A Stephen Crane Encyclopedia, Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 323.
- ^ "Donald William Stewart". Imperial War Museum.
- ^ Williamson, Thora (2000), Gold Coast Diaries: Chronicles of Political Officers in West Africa, The Radcliffe Press.
- ^ Sorrenson, M. P. K. (1968), Origins of European Settlement in Kenya, Oxford University Press.
- ^ Wills, Walter H.; Barrett, R. J. (1884). The Anglo-African Who's Who and Biographical Sketch-book. George Routledge & Sons, Limited. p. 230.
- ^ Waller, Richard (1976), "The Maasai and the British 1895-1905. the Origins of an Alliance", The Journal of African History 17, no. 4: 529–53.