Roland Evelyn Turnbull


Roland Evelyn Turnbull was born in Berwick on Tweed on June 9th 1905. He was educated at King's College London and St. John's College, Oxford. he joined the Malayan Civil Service in 1929. At one point in time he was the secretary to the High Commissioner for the Unfederated States. In 1934 he was made the Resident of Brunei for a period of three years. He spent two years on secondment to the Colonial Office before returning to Malaya in 1939 as Controller of Foreign Exchange a post he kept for only a short period before being sent to British Honduras as Colonial Secretary there.

He spent the last two years of WW2 at the War Office engaged in civil administration duties with the rank of colonel. After the end of the war he was chosen to succeed Hugh Foot as Colonial Secretary in Cyprus. He held this post until September 1950 when he was appointed Chief Secretary for Basutoland, the Bechuanaland Protectorate and Swaziland. In 1954, he succeeded Sir Ralph Hone as Governor and CinC for North Borneo. He was made CMG in 1946 and KCMG in 1956. He died in 1960 after a long illness at the age of just 55.


North Borneo | North Borneo Administrators


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