Sir Ronald Herbert Garvey (4 July 1903 – 31 May 1991) was a British Colonial Service administrator who served in the Pacific, the West Indies, and as Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man at the end of his career.

Biography

Education and early career A parson's son from the Lincolnshire Wolds, Garvey was admitted on a choral scholarship to Trent College (Long Eaton) where he studied from 1916 to 1923.Garvey 1984, p. 5. He then entered Emmanuel College at the University of Cambridge, where he read history and graduated B.A. in anthropology, while preparing to take the civil service examination, hoping to join the Indian Civil Service.Garvey 1984, p. 13. He became involved in breaking the 1926 general strike, and did not find time to study for this examination, and instead applied for a position in the Colonial Service.Garvey 1984, p. 15. He accepted a position in the Solomon Islands Protectorate, and sailed from Southampton to Fiji in November 1926.Garvey 1984, p. 23.

Garvey spent six years in the Solomons, most of them as a district officer for the Santa Cruz Group, on Vanikoro, more than 500 miles away from the colony's headquarters at Tulagi.Garvey 1984, p. 30. Amidst other occupations, he searched for archeological evidence of the French explorer Lapérouse's presence on the island.Garvey 1984, p. 39. In July 1932, he accepted an appointment as Assistant Secretary at the Western Pacific High Commission in Suva, Fiji,Garvey 1984, p. 47. where he married in October 1934 the daughter of a local doctor (see below). In 1938–1939, he served as acting Resident Commissioner of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony, a senior position not usually offered to people in their thirties.Garvey 1984, p. 53. He returned to his former position in Suva, but was sent to Tonga in late August 1939 to persuade Queen Salote to declare war on Nazi Germany if war was to break out in Europe.Garvey 1984, p. 71. Due to his success, a few months later he was appointed a member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).Garvey 1984, p. 81.

In Spring 1940, while on his way back to Britain on leave, he was recalled to serve as acting Resident Commissioner in the New Hebrides, at a time of turmoil as this Franco-British territory was the first to follow Charles de Gaulle's appeal to fight against Philippe Pétain's government.Garvey 1984, p. 89. Garvey assisted the French Commissioner Henri Sautot in his quick and bloodless overthrowing of Vichy power in New Caledonia.Garvey 1984, p. 92. In October 1941, he was again sent to the Gilbert and Ellice colonyGarvey 1984, p. 99. to put phosphate-rich Ocean Island "on a war-time footing" as its "Supreme Co-Ordinating Authority", until Japan's advance led to the island's evacuation in March 1942.Garvey 1984, p. 101.

Garvey then left Fiji for a new position in East African Nyasaland, but did not arrive until October before of the difficulty of travelling due to war-time restrictions.Garvey 1984, p. 95. He found it hard to adjust to this African setting after 16 years in the Pacific, but was soon offered the position of Administrator of Saint Vincent, in the West Indies.Garvey 1984, p. 115. The Garvey family left Nyasaland for England in February 1944, Ronald sailing for St. Vincent in September.Garvey 1984, p. 118.

Governor Garvey started work as Administrator of Saint Vincent in 1944. He moved on to be Governor of British Honduras in 1949;Rulers of Belize there he had to contend with a general strike and the need to devalue the local currency.Belize, general strikes, 1952 by Edward T. Brett He launched one of the first credit unions in British Honduras to protect poorer people from loan sharks.The perils of organising credit unions in developing countries He then served as Governor of Fiji from 1952, where he demonstrated his considerable public relations skills,Obituary: Sir Kenneth Maddocks The Independent, 1 September 2001 until his retirement in 1958.Rulers of Fiji

In retirement he became Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man: he launched major initiatives there in the early 1960s to increase tourism, including the establishment of a new casino, and promoted the local tax incentives.Obituary: Sir Charles Kerruish, The Independent, 2 August 2003 He also sent the Home Office a Manx cat to replace the one they had lost.Home Office cat history revealed BBC News, 4 January 2005 He subsequently wrote a memoir entitled Gentleman Pauper published in 1984.Gentleman Pauper by Sir Ronald Garvey, published by Anchor Publications in 1984 He is buried in Wrentham cemetery in Suffolk.Wrentham Cemetery Records

Family Garvey married Patricia Dorothy McGusty (1913-2005),National Portrait Gallery daughter of Dr. V.W.T. McGusty, a District Medical Officer in Fiji,Garvey 1984, p. 26. on 30 October 1934;Garvey 1984, p. 49. they had one son, Anthony (born 1935), and three daughters (Grania, Lavinia and Julia)Isle of Man Report British Pathe, 21 September 1959

Bibliography Sir Ronald Garvey, Gentleman Pauper, Bognor Regis: Anchor Publications, 1984.

References