Rawson W. Rawson

He served as private secretary to three successive vice-presidents of the Board, Charles Poulett Thomson, Alexander Baring and William Ewart Gladstone.

Soon after accepting this post, he was awarded a CB, and attained considerable local fame for his overly elaborate dress of lace collars, cuffs and buttons.

Whilst in the Cape, he was exceptionally involved in the study of ferns and other plants, in the establishment of the South African Museum, as well as in the details of parliamentary procedure.

However, his abilities as a financier were repeatedly questioned, as the Cape government became severely indebted and eventually entered a recession.

Parliamentary writer Richard William Murray records that in both Mauritius and the Cape Colony, Rawson had left the state "as nearly bankrupt as it is possible for a British dependency to be".