Robert Logan

Background

He was born in Langton, Berwickshire, Scotland on 2 April 1863.

Career

Logan migrated to New Zealand from Scotland in 1881 aged 19. Colonel Robert Logan was a key figure in the wartime administration of Western Samoa and was subsequently decorated by the British and French governments. Logan left Samoa in January 1919 and was condemned for negligence in his handling of the Samoan influenza outbreak by a New Zealand commission of inquiry (American Samoa was quarantined by the Governor, John Martin Poyer, and had no influenza deaths).

He was subsequently posted to the retired list in December 1919.

He returned to Lanarkshire, Scotland, and died in 1935.

Achievements

• In Samoa he tried to win local sentiment but struggled with complex economic and indigenous issues, and significantly mishandled the arrival of the influenza pandemic in November 1918, resulting in over 7,500 deaths.

Membership

He became a farmer and Mounted Rifles volunteer and a member of the New Zealand Staff Corps, and rose to command the Auckland Military District just prior to the War.

Connections

companion:

Croix de Chevalier