Sir Charles Norton Edgcumbe Eliot GCMG CB PC (8 January 1862 – 16 March 1931) was a British diplomat, colonial administrator and botanist.

During 1903 the arrival of hundreds of prospective settlers, chiefly from South Africa, led to the decision to entertain no more applications for large areas of land, especially as questions were raised concerning the preservation for the Maasai of their rights of pasturage.

It is a prospect that I view with equanimity...I have no desire to protect Maasaidom...the sooner it disappears and it is unknown, except in books of anthropology, the better..."[9] In April 1903, Major Frederick Russell Burnham, the famous American scout and then a Director of the East African Syndicate, sent an expedition consisting of John Weston Brooke, John Charles Blick, Mr. Bittlebank, and Mr. Brown, to assess the mineral wealth of the region.

's", travelled from Nairobi via Mount Elgon northwards to the western shores of Lake Rudolph, experiencing plenty of privations from want of water, and of the danger from encounters with the Maasai.

[11] Taken ill with influenza, he decided to return to England but died on the journey on 16 March 1931 and was buried at sea in the Straits of Malacca.

[11] In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Sir Charles Eliot, OCLC/WorldCat encompasses roughly 106 works in 355 publications in 2 languages and 4,509 library holdings.