# Governor Davidson's Building Programme (1904–1912)

URL: https://allhistories.com/seychelles/timeline/1904-governor-davidson-s-building-programme
Location: Victoria, Mahé
Themes: main-event

Walter Edward Davidson, a former diplomat and consular official, was appointed Governor of Seychelles in mid-1904, a year after the islands became a separate colony. He arrived with ambitions to give the young colony the infrastructure and institutions it had lacked under Mauritian rule. Davidson travelled frequently around the islands to make the governorship visible and promoted public works. His administration built the Le Niol reservoir above Victoria to improve the town's water supply, secured funding from the Carnegie trust for a public library that opened in 1910, and oversaw the design of a new Government House on the edge of Victoria, of which he became the first occupant. He received the King George V Coronation Medal in 1911. Davidson left in 1912 to become Governor of Newfoundland and later of New South Wales, where he died in 1923. His eight-year governorship laid down much of the physical framework of colonial Victoria. Government House, now State House, remains the official residence of the President of Seychelles, while the Carnegie library grew into the National Library. At this point in the timeline (1904–1912), the King of the United Kingdom was Edward VII (22 January 1901 – 6 May 1910). Local administration and government: the Governor of the Seychelles was Walter Edward Davidson (1904 – 1912).

## Why it matters
Davidson's works gave the new colony its first major public buildings and utilities, several of which survive as national institutions.

Ruler at the Time: [Edward VII](https://allhistories.com/seychelles/rulers/edward-vii)

Governor of the Seychelles: Walter Edward Davidson

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Walter Edward Davidson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Edward_Davidson)
- [Wikipedia — List of colonial governors and administrators of Seychelles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colonial_governors_and_administrators_of_Seychelles)
- [Seychelles News Agency — 18 British governors who led Seychelles through the 20th century](http://www.seychellesnewsagency.com/articles/7019/Island+history++British+governors+who+led+Seychelles+through+the+th+century)
- [Wikipedia — Crown Colony (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_of_Seychelles)