Godfrey Lagden

Sir Godfrey Yeatman Lagden KCMG KBE (1 September 1851 – 26 June 1934) was a British colonial administrator in southern Africa. He served as Resident Commissioner of Basutoland (1893–1901) and, under Lord Milner, as Commissioner of Native Affairs for the Transvaal Colony from 1901.

Early life Lagden was born at Yetminster, Dorset, the son of Reverend Richard Dowse Lagden of Balsham House, Cambridgeshire and was educated at Sherborne School. He joined the British civil service as a clerk in the General Post Office where he worked from 1869 to 1877, when he decided to move to South Africa. These recommendations established the framework for later segregationist legislation, including the Natives' Land Act of 1913, the Natives (Urban Areas) Act of 1923 and, ultimately, the Group Areas Act of 1950. The historian Martin Meredith has written that the commission's chief significance was that it transformed segregationist practices long common across southern Africa into an explicit political doctrine.

Lagden played cricket from time to time, including one first-class cricket match for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) when a team visited South Africa in 1906.

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