Sir Charles EliotSir Charles Norton Edgcumbe Eliot GCMG CB PC was a British diplomat, colonial administrator, and botanist who lived from 8 January 1862 to 16 March 1931. In 1900-1904, he was the Commissioner of British East Africa. From 1919 to 1925, he served as th British Ambassador to Japan. He was also a marine biologist and a malacologist. He named several sea slug species, including Chelidonura varians. Eliot was born in the village of Sibford Gower near Banbury, Oxfordshire, England, and had his education at Cheltenham College and Balliol College, Oxford, where he received a double first in classical moderations and Greats, as well as the Craven, Ireland, and Hertford scholarships. He also received the Boden Sanskrit Scholarship and the Houghton Syriac Prize. He was a notable linguist, fluent in 16 languages and familiar in another 20. Eliot held diplomatic appointments in Russia in 1885, Morocco in 1892, Turkey in 1893, and Washington, D.C. in 1899. He was also the British Commissioner in Samoa. In the 1898 Birthday Honours, he was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB), and on January 1, 1900, he was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG). Read More Read Less