Ernest Woodford Birch (1857-1929), KCMG (1911), was the eldest son of James Wheeler Woodford Birch, the first British Resident of Perak, Malaya.
Ernest Birch entered the Colonial Office as a clerk in 1876. In 1878 he joined the Civil Service in the Straits Settlements (which comprised the four trade centres of Penang, Singapore, Malacca, and Labuan). Birch worked in the Secretariat under Sir Cecil Clementi Smith and in various capacities in Singapore and Malacca until 1892, at which point he was appointed as secretary to the Governor of Perak (1892-1897).
In ca.1897, Birch was appointed as British Resident of Selangor; he subsequently held the posts of British Resident of the Negri Sembilan; Governor of Labuan and North Borneo; and (7th) British Resident of Perak, a post he held from 1904 until his retirement in 1910. After retiring, Birch served for many years on the Council of the Overseas League (becoming chairman in 1921) and was made Mayor of Bexhill in 1927.
From the guide to the Addresses and testimonials addressed to Sir Ernest Birch, [ca. 1870]-1920, (The Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies at Rhodes House)
