Background
Nicol was born as Davidson Sylvester Hector Willoughby Nicol on September 14, 1924 in Freetown, the capital city of Sierra Leone. His family belonged to the Creole minority who were an educated and elite ex-slave community.
Diplomat physician politician writer
Nicol was born as Davidson Sylvester Hector Willoughby Nicol on September 14, 1924 in Freetown, the capital city of Sierra Leone. His family belonged to the Creole minority who were an educated and elite ex-slave community.
He attended primary school in Nigeria and, in 1946, graduated with first class honours from Christ's College, Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. He earned his Ph.D. in 1958 and then proceeded to study for a medical degree at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary, University of London's medical school. Following the completion of his studies, Nicol lectured at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria.
He started his career as a research assistant and demonstrator in physiology at London University from 1950 to 1952, before going on as a lecturer to Ibadan University, Nigeria, from 1952 to 1954. He then returned to Cambridge to do further teaching and research 1954-9. He returned home to become the senior pathologist to the Sierra Leone government.
He is perhaps best known for his period as Principal of Fourah Bay College, between 1960 and 1968, becoming Vice-Chancellor of the University before being sent to the United Nations as his country’s permanent representative in 1969. There he served on the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council and was president of the Committee on Colonialism in 1970.
In 1971 he was appointed High Commissioner and Ambassador Extraordinary to Britain, also covering the Scandinavian countries.
On September 1, 1972, he was appointed executive director of the UN Institute for Training and Research to succeed Chief Simeon Adebo of Nigeria.
(1st Edition, 1st Printing, 1965. Rarely found original so...)