Career
Wodehouse entered the Ceylon Civil Service at an early age and later served as superintendent of British Honduras from 1851 to 1854. He then served as Governor of British Guiana from 1854 to 1861, where his unpopular measures (such as imposing a head tax) generated enormous riots that even saw him and his retinue attacked and pelted. His High Commission was also overshadowed, throughout its duration, by a growing movement in the Cape for a degree of independence under a system of "Responsible Government".
The local Cape Parliament was elected by a system of multi-racial franchise, but had no executive power.
The movement for "responsible government" (a democratically accountable executive) had immense local popularity, fueled by what was perceived to be the ineptitude of British imperial rule. Autocratic and unpopular, Wodehouse fought this growing independence movement throughout his Governorship, even attempting to dismantle the Cape Parliament and bring the Cape back under his direct rule as a Crown Colony.
Increasingly despotic, he in turn faced increasingly fierce opposition, led by local leader John Molteno, until he was recalled in 1870, amid great local celebration. He was then Governor of Bombay from 1872 to 1877, when he retired from public life.
He was made a Central Bank in 1860, a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1862 and a GCSI in 1876.
Wodehouse married Katherine Mary, daughter of F. J. Templer, in 1833. Wodehouse died in October 1887, aged 76. He is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.
Wodehouse Peak, a prominent highpoint in Golden Gate Highlands National Park is named after Philip Wodehouse supposedly due to his suggestion that the border between the Boers and Basotho should follow the Rooiberge range.
This suggestion, however, dates from 1845 when Sir Peregrine (Percy) Maitland governed the cape, well before the 1861 governorship of Wodehouse. Wodehouse presided over the Convention of Aliwal-North which formally established the boundaries of Basotholand.