Biographical entry: Marchant, William Sydney (1898 - 1953)
- Born
- 10 December 1898
- Died
- 1 February 1953
Details
William Sydney Marchant was born on 10 December 1898. He joined the Kenya Administration in 1919 after service in the First World War, in which he was wounded. From 1935 to 1937 he was a Deputy Provisional Commissioner in Zanzibar, and he occupied a similar post in Tanganyika from 1937 to 1939. In the latter year he was appointed BSIP Resident Commissioner, on 8 September. During the Japanese invasion in 1942 he evacuated the administration to inland Malaita, later returning to the American base at Point Cruz on Guadalcanal. Suffering from poor health, he left the Protectorate in 1943 to become the Chief Native Commissioner of Kenya, and retired in 1947. He was replaced by Owen Cyril Noel (q.v.). Marchant died on 1 February 1953. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sydney_Marchant [accessed 10 July 2011])