Robert Ward Tate

Colonel Robert Ward Tate CMG CBE VD (1864 – 28 December 1938) was the First Civil Administrator of Samoa (then Western Samoa) from 28 January 1919 to 16 March 1923, succeeding Robert Logan.

[6] He was a Colonel in the New Zealand Army, in the Volunteer and Territorial services and in charge of the Wellington Military District and Adjutant-General in World War I, No 82004.

[7][8] He found it difficult to explain the meaning of his "traditional" army rank.

[12] Tate was educated at Timaru Boys' High School and after studying law was admitted to the bar in 1886, and started a practice in Greytown.

He died aged 74 in Greytown Hospital where he retired to in 1933, resuming his former legal partnership with Mr J. F. Thomson.