Hugh Hastings Romilly

Who was Hugh Hastings Romilly?

Hugh Hastings Romilly was a British explorer in the Pacific, the third son of Colonel Frederick Romilly and Elizabeth, daughter of William Elliot, third earl of Minto. He was born in London on 15 March 1856, and, at first, educated at the Rev. C. A. Johns's school at Winchester, and then at Repton. He entered Christ Church, Oxford, on 10 October 1874, but took no degree, leaving to enter the business of Messrs. Melly & Co., merchants, of Liverpool.

He was of adventurous disposition, and joined in Fiji in October 1879 Sir Arthur Gordon, the governor. On 12 November he accompanied his chief to Tonga, and, in December, to Rotumah, in connection with the annexation of that island. He arrived again in Fiji on 17 April 1880, and returned to Rotumah on 18 September 1880 as deputy-commissioner on its annexation to the British crown.

In early 1881, owing to continued ill-health, he rejoined Sir Arthur Gordon, who had gone to New Zealand as governor, but in March he was appointed deputy-commissioner for the Western Pacific, and started for his first long tour through these seas in H.M.S. Beagle. He visited New Hanover, the Admiralty group, Hermit Islands, Astrolabe Bay in New Guinea, the Louisiade archipelago, Woodlark Islands, and the Trobriands. After a visit on sick leave to England, succeeded by a short stay in Fiji, he was ordered to New Guinea for the first time, at the end of 1883. In November 1884 he was one of the party which declared the British protectorate over part of New Guinea.