Woodford, Charles Morris

Charles Morris Woodford C.M.G (Companion of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George), British naturalist, was born in Milton, near Gravesend, Kent on 30 October 1852. In 1881 he travelled to Fiji to collect natural history specimens for the British Museum and later travelled and explored the Western Pacific region, particularly the Solomon Islands. He led three expeditions to the Solomon Islands in1886, 1887 and 1888 and collected over twenty thousand specimens on the first two trips. He became the first Resident Commissioner of the British Solomon Islands protectorate from 1896 - 1914. In 1899, he married Florence Palmer, the daughter of John Palmer of Bathurst, New South Wales. Following his retirement in 1914, he returned to England and died at Steyning, Sussex, on 4 October 1927. Woodford was a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, member of the British Ornithologists’ Union and the Hakluyt Society. His experiences are described in his book, A naturalist among the head-hunters (1890).

Solomon Islands

Colonial administrator; first Resident Commissioner of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate, 1896 – 1914

Prepared by Christine Bryan on 24 July 2013 and entered from deposit description written by Karina Taylor on 16 October 2012.

Woodford, Charles Morris (1852 – 1927). Solomon Islands Historical Encyclopaedia 1893 – 1978.
National Library of Australia, Libraries Australia, record ID: 000047346285.
Solomon Islands country brief. Canberra: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Tennett, J.T. ‘Charles Morris Woodford C.M.G. (1852 – 1927): Pacific adventurer and forgotten Solomon Islands naturalist’. Archives of Natural History, Vol.26, pp 419 - 432.
Woodford, Charles Morris (1890). A naturalist among the head-hunters. 2nd edition, London, George Philip & Son.