John Pickersgill Rodger

Sir John Pickersgill Rodger, was a British colonial administrator. He served as British resident to several Malay states, before ending his career as Governor of the Gold Coast from 1904 to 1910.

Early life

Rodger was born in 1851 at Marylebone in London, the second son of Sir Robert Rodger and his wife Sophia. His father was a landowner, magistrate and Justice of the Peace who purchased Hadlow Castle in Kent where the family lived, and was the High Sheriff of Kent in 1865. He was educated at Eton College, where he was in the cricket XI, and went up to Christ Church, Oxford in 1870.

Career

Rodger was called to the English Bar at the Inner Temple in 1877 but practised little in Britain and joined the Colonial Service. In 1882 he was appointed as the Chief Magistrate and Commissioner of Lands at Selangor and was the British resident of Pahang, Selangor and Perak, all in British Malaya, before being appointed as the Governor of the Gold Coast in 1904. He was influential in the development of infrastructure whilst in post in West Africa, including the building of a harbour at Accra and of beginning the building of a railway to serve the cocoa industry around Kumasi.
Rodger was appointed CMG in 1899 and knighted KCMG in 1904.

Cricket

Rodger was a cricketer who played one first-class match for Kent County Cricket Club in 1870 after leaving Eton, playing against Marylebone Cricket Club during Canterbury Cricket Week. He scored a total of seven runs in the match. Although he played some cricket at Oxford he did not make the University XI. He played club cricket for MCC, Band of Brothers and the Gentlemen of Kent. His brother, William Rodger, also played for Kent.

Family

Rodger married Maria Tyser in 1872; the couple had one daughter. He died in September 1910 in London shortly after retiring from the Colonial Service due to ill health. He was aged 59.