Francis Noel Ashley (1884-1976), CMG (1937) was educated at Westminster, served with the Sussex Militia Artillery, 1902-1904 and with the Cape Colonial Mounted Forces, southern Africa, 1904-1908. He joined the Political Service, Nigeria as a cadet, 1908 and served with the West Africa Frontier Force, from 1915. He was Resident, Southern Provinces, Nigeria, 1924-1928, Resident Commissioner, British Solomon Islands Protectorate, 1929-1939 and served with the R.A.F. Volunteer Reserve [as Squadron Leader], 1940-1944. He was employed by the Bahamas Government, 1944-1946. In 1913 he married Marjorie Robinson, with whom he had one daughter.

Photograph album, Ogoja Province, southern Nigeria; sketches; watercolour of Divisional Officer's house, Ikotikpene, 1918; photograph of Ashley, 1934; photograph of disembarkation of a colonial governor and members of his staff, uncaptioned.

The papers were donated to the library by Mrs. D. Sims-Williams, Ashley's niece, on 15th February 1992.

Postcard showing a photograph of native troops and colonial officials, inscribed Calabar, 1924, [Nigeria]. Donor assumes the couple in the centre of the picture to be F.N. Ashley and his wife. Donated by Mrs. Dorothy Sims Williams, through the good offices of Anthony Kirk-Greene, on 28th October 1996.

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The library holds a card index of all manuscript collections in its reading room.

Account of history, administration, native manners and customs of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate, with associated papers as Resident Commissioner, and photographs, 1931-1938 (ref. MSS. Pac. s. 40); inspection reports as Resident Commissioner, British Solomon Islands Protectorate, 1929-1938 and as Chief Out Island Commissioner, Bahamas, 1944-1945; letter to a group of MPs who asked for an opinion on the future of the colonies, 1944 (ref. MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 422).

Ashley | Francis Noel | 1884-1976 | Colonial Administrator

Nigeria | Description and travel | Views

Nigeria | History | 20th century | Pictorial works