Robert Coryndon

Sir Robert Thorne Coryndon KCMG
Robert Coryndon, Nairobi, 1923, with Palmer Kerrison (left) and E.A.T. Dutton (right)
Resident Commissioner in Swaziland
In office 1907–1916
Resident Commissioner in Basutoland
In office 1916–1917
Governor of Uganda
In office 1918–1922
Preceded by	Frederick John Jackson
Succeeded by	Geoffrey Francis Archer
Governor of Kenya
In office 1 September 1922 – 10 February 1925
Preceded by	Edward Northey
Succeeded by	Edward Grigg
Personal details
Born	2 April 1870 South Africa
Died	10 February 1925 (1925-02-11) (aged 54) Nairobi

Sir Robert Thorne Coryndon KCMG (2 April 1870 – 10 February 1925) was a British colonial administrator, a former secretary of Cecil Rhodes who became Governor of the colonies of Uganda (1918–1922) and Kenya (1922–1925). He was one of the most powerful of colonial administrators of his day.

Robert Thorne Coryndon was born in Cape Colony, South Africa on 2 April 1870. He was educated at St. Andrew's College, Grahamstown, and at Cheltenham College in England. In 1889 he returned to South Africa to serve his articles as a lawyer with his uncles's firm, Caldecott and Bell of Kimberley. Unhappy with office work, after a few months he joined the Bechuanaland Border Police run by the British South Africa Company (BSAC) which Cecil Rhodes had formed in 1889. In 1890 he was a member of the Pioneer Force occupying Mashonaland. In 1893 and 1896 he served in campaigns in Matabeleland.

In 1896 Coryndon was appointed private secretary to Cecil Rhodes, and served in that role during the 1896 Parliamentary Inquiry into the Jameson Raid. In summer of 1897 he was sent by Rhodes to be the BSAC representative in Barotseland. In October 1897 he reached King Lewanika's capital, Lealui, where he was given a cool reception. Lewanika could not accept that Coryndon could represent both a company and the government. In November 1899 Queen Victoria signed an order in council that established company rule in "Barotziland – North West Rhodesia", and in September 1900 Coryndon was appointed commissioner. He held this post until 1907. He then became Resident Commissioner in Swaziland, and was chairman of the Southern Rhodesian Native Reserves Commission of 1914–1915. In 1916 he was appointed Resident Commissioner in Basutoland.