Geoffrey Francis Archer

Who was Geoffrey Francis Archer?

Sir Geoffrey Francis Archer K.C.M.G. was a British ornithologist, big game hunter and colonial official. He was Commissioner and then Governor of British Somaliland between 1913 and 1922, and was responsible for finally quelling the twenty-year long Dervish resistance of Mohammed Abdullah Hassan.

From 1922 to 1925, Archer was appointed Governor of Uganda. He later served as Governor-General of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan between 1925 and 1926. In the Sudan, Archer paid a formal but friendly visit to Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi, son of the self-proclaimed Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad, whose forces had killed General Gordon in 1885. Abd al-Rahman was leader of the neo-Mahdists in Sudan. Archer was eventually forced to resign due to the resultant flap, and spent the remainder of his career organising salt works in India.