William Sydney Marchant (1894-1953) worked as Assistant District Commissioner in the East Africa Protectorate (now Kenya) from 1919. He subsequently served as District Officer in Kenya (from 1926); Deputy Provincial Commissioner and Assistant Secretary in Zanzibar (from 1935), and Deputy Provincial Commissioner in Tanganyika Territory (from 1937). In 1939 he was appointed Resident Commissioner of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate.
From the guide to the Papers of William Sydney Marchant, 1925-1947, (The Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies at Rhodes House)