Wilfred Bennett Davidson-Houston Explained

Honorific-Prefix:Lieutenant-Colonel
Wilfred Bennett Davidson-Houston
Office1:Commissioner of Montserrat
Term Start1:1906
Term End1:1918
Predecessor1:Frederick Henry Watkins
Successor1:Claude Forlong Condell
Office2:Administrator of Saint Lucia
Term Start2:1918
Term End2:1927
Predecessor2:Gideon Oliphant-Murray
Successor2:Charles William Doorly
Office3:Acting Governor of Nyasaland
Term Start3:30 May 1929
Term End3:7 November 1929
Predecessor3:Charles Calvert Bowring
Successor3:Shenton Thomas
Birth Date:3 January 1870

Wilfred Bennett Davidson-Houston (3 January 1870 – 18 September 1960) was a British army officer who fought in the Anglo-Ashanti wars and later became a colonial administrator in the British West Indies.

Background

Wilfred Bennett Davidson-Houston was born on 3 January 1870, the second son of Reverend B.C. Davidson-Houston of County Cork and Dublin.He attended Corrig School, Monkstown, County Dublin in Ireland and St Edward's School, Oxford.

Military career

In 1887 Davidson-Houston was commissioned a second lieutenant with the 5th (Militia) battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1889, captain on 26 November 1892, major on 11 October 1902 and lieutenant colonel in 1906.Davidson-Houston was assigned to the British South Africa Company Police, and was assistant commissioner in Mashonaland (1890–1892).He was assistant inspector of Gold Coast Hausas (1894) and captain of the West African Frontier Service, Kwahu (1894–1895).He served in the Fourth Anglo-Ashanti War (1895–1896), and in subsequent operations in the Gold Coast (1897–1898), and was acting resident Ashanti (1899–1900).He served in the Ashanti Campaign (1900) and the Second Boer War (1901–1902).

Colonial administrator

In August 1902, he was seconded for service under the Colonial Office, and appointed commissioner of Ashanti (1902) and acting chief commissioner of Ashanti (1903–1905).

In 1906, Davidson-Houston was appointed commissioner of Montserrat in the British West Indies. During the First World War he was D.A.Q.M.G. Central Force (1915), Eastern Command (1916), Headquarters 1st Army, B.E.F. (1917) and Deputy Controller of Labour, France (1918). He was administrator of Saint Lucia, British West Indies (1918–1927). During this period he was several times acting governor of the Windward Islands.Davidson-Houston was chief secretary, Nyasaland (1927–1930), and was twice acting governor, Nyasaland.

Davidson-Houston married Annie Henrietta, oldest daughter of land agent Colonel Edmond Langley Hunt, C.M.G., of Curragh Bridge House, County Limerick (of a landed gentry family of Friarstown and Ballysinode),[1] [2] [3] [4] and they had two sons.He retired in 1930. He died on 18 September 1960, aged ninety.

Notes and References

  1. The peerage, baronetage, and knightage of the British Empire for 1881, ed. Joseph Foster, p. 624
  2. Burke's Landed Gentry, 1969, ed. Peter Townsend, p. 319
  3. Burke's Landed Gentry of Ireland, 1899, p. 213
  4. Web site: Estate Record: Hunt (Limerick & Tipperary).