Charles William Hobley, CMG — known as C. W. Hobley — was a pioneering British Colonial administrator in Kenya. He served the Colonial Service in Kenya from 1894 until his retirement in 1921 and published a number of monographs on a variety of subjects.
Biography
The son of an Indian Civil Servant, Hobley underwent technical education in engineering at Mason College. He joined the Imperial British East Africa Company and was sent to Mombasa in 1890, where he served as Transport Superintendent at the coast. He left the company after three years but within a year had become a First Class Assistant under the Foreign Office and served the British government in Kenya from that point on. He undertook a general tour of the whole of the Central African Lake Region and first arrived at Mumia's in February 1895, where he established a British administration station along Sclater's Road. In 1896, he became the first European to circumambulate Mount Elgon and the same year he arrived in the Kano Plains/Kisumu area. He oversaw a number of punitive expeditions which were carried out to pacify hostile natives. In 1905, he married Alice Mary Turner. Ultimately, Hobley became Provincial Commissioner of Kavirondo Region and later sub-commissioner of Ukamba Province. During the First World War, he served as Chief Political Officer to the British forces in what was later named Tanganyika Territory. He was awarded the Back Award of the Royal Geographical Society in 1915 and retired from the Foreign Service in 1921.
Publications
Something of a polymath, C.W. Hobley published on a wide variety of subjects.
Hobley, C.W., "Eastern Uganda, an Ethnological Survey" Anthrop. Inst., Occasional Papers, No. I, London, 1902.
Hobley, C.W., 1903, "Notes Concerning the Eldorobo of Mau, East Africa", Man, 3.17:33-35.
Hobley, C.W., 1918, "The Lubwa and Elgon Caves, with some remarks on their origin and the geology of the region", Journal of East Africa and Uganda Natural History Society, v. 13, p. 280.
Hobley, Charles William, Bantu Beliefs and Magic with Particular Reference to the Kikuyu and Kamba Tribes of Kenya Colony, Together with Some Reflections on East Africa After the War.
Hobley, C.W., Kenya: From Chartered Company to Crown Colony, Thirty Years of Exploration and Administration in British East Africa.
Hobley, C.W., "Soil Erosion: A Problem in Human Geography", A Paper Read at the Afternoon Meeting of the Society on 8 May 1933, Geographical Review 82 : 139-46.
Hobley, C.W., "The Preservation of Wild Life in the Empire", Afr Aff, 1935, XXXIV: 403-407.
