Lugard, F. D. (Frederick Dealtry), Sir, 1858-1945

Frederick John Dealtry Lugard (1858-1945), soldier, administrator and author was born in Madras, India but raised at Worcester and educated at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Entering the Army, he received his commission in 1878 in the 9th Foot (the Norfolk Regiment), joining the second batallion in India. In 1884 he secured secondment to the Military Transport Service, which was dispatched the following year to support the campaign for the relief of Khartoum in the Sudan. For this and his service in Burma in 1886 he was awarded the DSO.

In c1888, after being placed on medical leave and after a couple of abortive attempts to join the Italian forces in Abyssinia, he signed up with a small force which the African Lakes Company was preparing for the defence of a trading station at Karongwa, Nyasaland. His work in securing the station attracted the attention of Sir William Mackinnon, who gave him the task of opening up a new route from Mombasa (Kenya) to the interior by way of the Sabaki River. He completed this as far as Machakos (near Nairobi), when he received orders to proceed to Uganda, where, over a period of two years, he established order and a favourable state of affairs for the company in Buganda and the Bunyoro, Toro and Ankoli chiefdoms. He was also instrumental in persuading the British government to adopt Uganda as a protectorate in 1894.

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