GOLDIE, Sni George Dashwood Vaub man, British administrator: b. The Nunnery. Isle of Man, 20 May 1846. He was educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and entered the Royal Engineers with rank of lieu tenant, remaining there for two years. He then engaged in traveling and exploring in Africa and in 1877 reached the Niger country. Realiz ing the possibilities of development in the coun try of the lower and middle Niger he set about adding those regions to the British Empire. He chose the Dutch East India Company for his model, secured the consolidation of British commercial interests in ,the Niger under the title United African Interests in 1879, and in 1881 appealed to the government for a charter. For five years Goldie fought opposition of va rious sorts and met them with achievements that overruled them. The name of the company was changed to the National African Company, its capital increased from $625,000 to $5,000,000, and numerous new stations were established on the Niger. Treaties, drawn by Goldie, were made with some 400 lower Niger and Hausa states, French territorial rights were bought in 1884 and at the Berlin Conference in 1885 he was able to establish the fact that the lower Niger territory was wholly under the British flag. The Niger coast line was also placed
under British protection. In July 1886, Goldie's efforts were rewarded by the granting of the desired government charter, the company then becoming the Royal Niger Company. Lord Aberdare was appointed governor and Goldic vice-governor, and in 1895 he became gov ernor. In 1900 the Royal Niger Company ceded its territories to the British government in con sideration of a payment of $4,325,000, it having become impracticable for a chartered company longer to maintain its rights against the state protected interests of France and Germany. Goldie was knighted in 1887 and received hon orary degrees from Oxford and Cambridge. He served as a member of the Royal Commission on the South African War in 1902-03, and on that of the War Stores in 1905-06. He is a member of the Royal Society, was president of the Royal Geographical Society in 1905, became a privy councillor in 1898 and is president of the National Defense Association.