SBB McElderry

Few people can have had a greater influence on the course of my mother, Helen Wilson's life than this man, SBB McElderry, Chief Secretary to the Zanzibar Government. It was he who insisted that the Zanzibar secretariat needed a confidential secretary from England, who appointed Helen, and who stood by her when she was involved in the scandal over the interview with the Daily Express.

Samuel Burnside Boyd McElderry (1885-1984) was born in Ballymoney, Antrim, Ireland, in 1885 and started his colonial career in the Hong Kong Administrative Service, before transferring to the post of Deputy Chief Secretary, Tanganyika, where he served from 1929 to 1933. In that year he became Chief Secretary, Zanzibar, where he stayed until 1940, when the above picture was taken.

The medal he is wearing at his neck is the Order of St Michael and St George, which he was awarded in 1935.

From Zanzibar he went to the office of the High Commissioner for Basutoland, Bechuanaland and Swaziland, and for the last year of his career he worked in London, retiring in 1946. Thereafter, for reasons I do not know, he was closely involved with the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind and the Royal National Institute for the Blind.

McElderry married Mildred Orme (always known as Molly) in 1913. She was Anglo-Welsh and they had three daughters, the youngest of whom, Margaret, was Helen's bridesmaid at her wedding, Mr McElderry gave her away, my parents' wedding reception was at the McElderry's house, and it was their daughter Ruth who first suggested to her father that Helen might like to take the job in Zanzibar - see post here.