Charles Coghlan (politician)

Sir Charles Patrick John Coghlan, (24 June 1863 – 28 August 1927), was a lawyer and politician who served as Premier of Southern Rhodesia from 1 October 1923 to his death on 28 August 1927. Having led the responsible government movement in the territory during the latter days of Company rule, he was Southern Rhodesia's first head of government after it became a self-governing colony within the British Empire.

Born, raised and educated in South Africa, of Irish descent, Coghlan moved to Bulawayo in 1900 to practise as a lawyer. He was elected to the Southern Rhodesian Legislative Council in 1908, representing the Western electoral district. Over the next decade he supported the renewal of the British South Africa Company's royal charter to administer the Rhodesias, and opposed Southern Rhodesia's amalgamation with either Northern Rhodesia or the Union of South Africa. He led a delegation to London to discuss responsible government in 1921, and two years later Southern Rhodesia became a self-governing colony. Coghlan sat in the Legislative Assembly as Member for Bulawayo from 1924 to his death.

Coghlan was buried near Cecil Rhodes's grave, at "World's View" in the Matopos Hills near Bulawayo.

Early life (1863–1882)

Charles Patrick John Coghlan was born on 24 June 1863 in King William's Town, British Kaffraria (part of the Cape Colony from 1866). He had three elder brothers. His father, James Coghlan, was from Ireland and was a Catholic; he had arrived in South Africa in 1851 as a private in the British Army, having enlisted to escape the Great Famine of Ireland. After fighting in the Eighth Xhosa War of 1850–53 with the 2nd (The Queen's Royal) Regiment of Foot, James was stationed in the Keiskamma mountains; he settled there with his wife Isabella Mary (née Maclaren), who was originally from Dumbartonshire, Scotland. They moved to King William's Town after Coghlan's discharge from the military and the birth of their first child, a boy also called James. The elder James Coghlan would become a town councillor in King William's Town.

Charles Coghlan was educated at home until January 1870, when he was enrolled at the Jesuit St Aidan's College in Grahamstown. He was awarded a bursary to the South African College, Cape Town, where he studied law with the intent of becoming a barrister, but these plans were disrupted by his father's death from dysentery. Short of money, Charles quit university in 1882 and went to work for Paley and Coghlan, the law firm where his eldest brother James was a partner, in Kimberley.

Kimberley (1882–1900)

When Coghlan arrived to join his brother in 1882, Kimberley was a town of 22,000 in search of riches, according to John Smith Moffat. That same year, Cecil Rhodes incorporated the De Beers Mining Company and in 1883 was elected to the Cape Parliament as Member for the newly enfranchised Diamond Fields. Kimberley had come into being after diamonds were found on the De Beers brothers' farm on Colesberg Kopje in 1869. Initially dubbed "New Rush", the site was renamed after Lord Kimberley, the British Secretary of State for the Colonies, in 1873. It was respectively and from the Orange Free State and the South African Republic (or Transvaal), the latter of which had just had its independence restored following the First Boer War of 1880–81.

Coghlan was admitted to practise as advocate in the courts of West Griqualand on 9 December 1886. Ten months later, after Paley's death, Coghlan and his elder brother formed the firm of Coghlan and Coghlan. Kimberley's position at the epicentre of the diamond trade led the brothers to develop expertise and a formidable reputation for their work in the mining industry.

thumb|left|Kimberley Mine and Town, 1891

Rhodes outmanoeuvred his main opponent Barney Barnato and brought all the mines under the control of his company, De Beers, in 1888. On 30 October of that year, through the signing of the Rudd Concession by King Lobengula of Matabeleland, he obtained exclusive mining rights across all of Lobengula's territories in Matabeleland, Mashonaland and beyond for his soon-to-be-formed British South Africa Company (BSAC). Queen Victoria granted the BSAC a royal charter to administer and develop these territories on 29 October 1889, for an initial period of 25 years. This charter included the right to take possession of, deal with, and dispose of land. On 12 September 1890 Rhodes's Pioneer Column reached what was to become Salisbury.

Coghlan took an active part in public debates. He was loyal to Britain, but held that all parts of the British Empire should be internally self-governing, with each territory supporting the others. Arguing that this should extend to his ancestral home of Ireland, he expressed support for the Home Rule movement there. He disapproved of the policy of the South African Republic government under Paul Kruger of conscripting uitlanders (mostly British settlers) for military service while denying them the electoral franchise.

Coghlan was elected to the Kimberley town council in 1897. The following year Colonel Frederick Schermbrucker's youngest daughter Gertrude Mary Schermbrucker, described as an attractive and sociable woman, arrived to stay at the house Coghlan shared with his sister and mother. Coghlan married Gertrude in Wynberg, a southern suburb of Cape Town, on 10 January 1899. Around this time Coghlan's friend Percy Ross Frames invited him to join him in Bulawayo, one of the main settlements in Rhodesia, as Matabeleland, Mashonaland and the adjoining areas were now collectively called. Coghlan was receptive to the idea, but was compelled to stay in Kimberley by the outbreak of the Second Boer War in October 1899. Kimberley was besieged by Boer forces, cut off by rail and telephone, from 14 October until its relief by General John French on 15 February 1900.

Bulawayo (1900–1908)

After a break in Cape Town, Coghlan and his wife left Kimberley for Bulawayo on 30 July 1900. There, they found the conditions to be very basic and the buildings, ramshackle. Nevertheless, the settlers enjoyed outdoor pursuits, dances and musical and theatrical performances. Coghlan and his wife lodged at the Grand Hotel. In 1901, not long after they arrived, the Coghlans' first child was born, but the baby lived only three days. A second child, a girl named Petal, was born in November 1902 and lived to old age.

Coghlan gained admission to the Rhodesian bar and entered into partnership with Frames to create Frames and Coghlan. Frames left for Johannesburg in late 1902, citing the poor economic conditions in Southern Rhodesia following the Second Boer War, ending this firm. Coghlan and Allan Ross Welsh formed a new partnership, Coghlan and Welsh. The firm expanded into Salisbury as Coghlan, Welsh and Tancred in 1907 when Bernard Tancred, a South African cricketer and friend of Coghlan's from Johannesburg, joined. Shortly before the 1908 elections to the Southern Rhodesian Legislative Council, Welsh sent a telegram to Coghlan, who was visiting relatives in Pietersburg, advising him to stand. Coghlan did so successfully in March 1908. He was initially buried in the Bulawayo cemetery but, following a petition from Bulawayo Town Council, Parliament consented for him to be reburied in the Matopos Hills, alongside Cecil Rhodes and Sir Starr Jameson, at a ceremony on 14 August 1930.

Sir John Chancellor, the first Governor of Southern Rhodesia, after his retirement in 1928 spoke of the progress that the country had made in its first years of responsible government under the stewardship of Sir Charles Coghlan. The country's economy grew, with annual revenue increasing from £1.3 million to £2 million, with exports up from £8.5 million to £12 million, despite setbacks in the cotton and tobacco industries.

The building housing Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organization bore the name of Sir Charles. However, in April 1985, it was changed by the office of Prime Minister Robert Mugabe to that of Chaminuka, an ancestral spirit invoked by guerrillas opposing the government of Ian Smith.

Honours

Coghlan was knighted in 1910 for his services to the 1908 National Convention, which led to the South Africa Act 1909 and ultimately the formation of the Union of South Africa.

In 1925, the rank of KCMG was conferred on him, the warrant having been signed by his friend The Earl Buxton, Chancellor of the Order, who had served as Governor-General of South Africa from 1914 to 1920 and was president of the African Society from 1920 to 1933.

References

Bibliography

External links

Coghlan and Welsh
Coghlan, Welsh & Guest