Cecil Stephen Northcote

Major Cecil Stephen Northcote CBE (1878–1945) was a British military officer who was governor of Mongalla Province in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan from 1918 to 1919, and then of the Nuba Mountains province from 1919 to 1927.[1]

Major

Cecil Stephen Northcote
Governor of Mongalla Province
In office
1918 – February 1919
Preceded byRoger Carmichael Robert Owen
Succeeded byChauncey Hugh Stigand
Governor of Nuba Mountains Province
In office
16 March 1919 – 7 March 1928
Preceded byR.S. Wilson
Succeeded byJames Angus Gillan
Personal details
Born1878
Died1945

Northcote joined the 7th Battalion, the Rifle Brigade (the Prince Consort's Own), and on 11 March 1891 was promoted from Second Lieutenant to Lieutenant.[2] On 6 May 1895 he was promoted to Captain.[3] On 7 May 1904 he resigned his Commission and was granted the honorary rank of Major.[4] Northcote joined the Egyptian army in April 1909.[5] He was seconded to the Sudan Political Service in February 1912, and was posted to Bahr al-Ghazal.[6]

Northcote was appointed Governor of Mongalla from 1918 until 1919.[6] When he took office in Mongalla he was advised by his predecessor, R.C.R. Owen, to exclude all northern merchants from the province. Owen explained that "if a Jehad is ever started in the Sudan and Northern Africa, it would be a great thing if the countries south of the Sudd were free from it and if we could link up with Uganda which is practically entirely Christian and so have an anti-Islam buffer or bulwark in this part of Africa".[7]

When Northcote was appointed governor in 1918, the fifteen provincial governorships in the Sudan under Governor General Reginald Wingate were held by eight army officers, or former officers, and severn civilians. By 1924, when Wingate's successor Sit Lee Stack died, Northcote and M.J. Wheatley in Bahr al-Ghazal were the only governors with military backgrounds.[8] Northcote was transferred to the Nuba Mountains in 1919, and was succeeded in Mongalla by Chauncey Hugh Stigand. Northcote was governor of the Nuba mountains province until he retired in 1928.[9] His successor was Mr. J.A. Gillan.[5]

References
  1. Ahmed Uthman Muhammad Ibrahim (1985). The dilemma of British rule in the Nuba Mountains, 1898-1947=. Graduate College, University of Khartoum. p. 90.
  2. {{cite web. (Cecil Stephen Northcote was born in 1878. He was a 2nd Lt in 1891 in the 7th Btn Rifle Brigade when he was 13? Seems unlikely, even though the 7th was a militia Btn. There are period listings in the London Gazette that reflect a C.S. Northcote as an officer in the 7th Btn RB, 1891 to 1904; promoted to Captain in the 7th in 1900; as well as mention of a LtC C.S. Northcote in 1916/17. However, the London Gazette, 7 Feb 1902, p. 784, lists a Private Cecil Stephen Northcote of the Cape Mounted Rifles being nominated as 2nd Lt in the Bedfordshire Regiment. This C.S. Northcote would have been circa 21 years old when he went to South Africa circa 1900 and volunteered for the Cape Mounted Rifles - at same time he was promoted Captain in the 7th Btn RB? Given age, unit and rank discrepancies, it would appear we are dealing here with two different officers by the name of Northcote and with the same C.S. initials, one born in 1878 - Cecil Stephen - and the other born somewhat earlier. Moreover, it seems more plausible the C.S. Northcote who was a provincial governor in Sudan 1918-1928 was (peobably older) Rifle Brigade Northcote than the young man who ran off to volunteer as a private in the Boer War.) |url=http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/26142/pages/1342/page.pdf |work=The London Gazette |title=Appointments |date=10 March 1891 |page=1342 |accessdate=2011-07-03}}
  3. "Appointments" (PDF). The London Gazette. 18 June 1895. p. 3468. Retrieved 2011-07-03.
  4. "Appointments" (PDF). The London Gazette. 10 May 1904. p. 3005. Retrieved 2011-07-31.
  5. Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons (1929). Papers by command, Volume 23. HMSO. pp. 11, 113.
  6. Bābakr Badrī (1969). The memoirs of Babikr Bedri, Volume 2. Oxford U.P. p. 330.
  7. Deng D. Akol Ruay (1994). The politics of two Sudans: the south and the north, 1821-1969. Nordic Africa Institute. p. 38. ISBN 91-7106-344-7.
  8. M. W. Daly (2004). Empire on the Nile: The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 1898-1934. Cambridge University Press. p. 272. ISBN 0-521-89437-9.
  9. M. W. Daly, Jane Hogan (2005). Images of empire: photographic sources for the British in the Sudan. BRILL. p. 175. ISBN 90-04-14627-X.
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