OLIVIER SIR SYDNEY 1859 - 1943 BARON OLIVIER FABIAN

Two folders:

• Folder 1. International Socialist Workers' Conference Zurich, 1893. Minutes of the proceedings of the British Section, notes by Sydney Olivier together with drafts of a report on the conference and a list of the delegates by organisation and name.
• Folder 2. "The Emancipators", a play by Olivier, undated.

Sir Sydney Olivier 1859 - 1943

Sir Sydney Olivier was the son of an Anglican clergyman. He was born in Colchester, Essex, and educated in Lausanne, Kineton School, Tonbridge School, Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and Germany.

He entered the Colonial Office in 1882. After being inspired by the work of the journalist and land reformer Henry George (1839 - 1897), Olivier joined the Land Reform League. He also contributed articles to the "Christian Socialist" journal. At the Colonial Office, Olivier became friends with the social reformer Sidney Webb (1859 - 1947) and they joined the Hampstead Historic Club where they met the writer George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950). In 1885 Shaw encouraged them to join the Fabian Society. The following year Olivier was elected to the Fabian Society Executive Committee. From 1886 to 1890 he was Secretary of the organisation. Olivier also contributed to the Fabian journal Today, wrote Capital and Land (1888), and provided the article 'The Moral Basis of Socialism', to the book Essays in Fabian Socialism (1889).

He became Acting Colonial Secretary of British Honduras 1890 - 1891, Auditor General of the Leeward Islands, a special appointment to examine and reorganise the accounts and finances of the island, 1895 - 1896, was private secretary to Lord Selborne 1896 - 1897 and secretary of the West India Royal Commission in 1897. He was sent to Washington in 1898 to assist in reciprocity negotiations on behalf of West Indian colonies. He was made Colonial Secretary of Jamaica 1899 - 1904 and was Acting Governor 1900, 1902 and 1904. In 1904 he moved to being the Principal Clerk of the West African and West Indian departments of the Colonial Office, became Governor of Jamaica 1907 - 1913, Permanent Secretary of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, 1913 - 1917, Assistant Comptroller and Auditor of the Exchequer 1917.

Olivier retired from the Civil Service in 1918 and once again played an important role in the Fabian Society. On the formation of the first Labour Government in 1924, Ramsay MacDonald granted Olivier a peerage and appointed him Secretary of State for India. Following the 1929 General Election MacDonald appointed him Chairman of the West Indian Sugar Commission 1929 - 1930.

His publications include:

• The Anatomy of African Misery (1927)
• White Capital and Coloured Labour (1929)
• The Myth of Governor Eyre and Jamaica (1936)

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