WHITCOMBE, CHARLES DOUGLAS (1836-1904) was born at Rochester, the son of Captain D. T. Whitcombe, and grandson of Sir Samuel Whitcombe, K.C.B. Educated at Plymouth and St Brieuc, Brittany, he joined the audit department at Somerset House (1853). In 1861 he resigned to enter the service of Garibaldi, in which he rose to the rank of sergeant, but had to retire owing to ill-health. In 1864 he emigrated to New Zealand and took up land as a military settler at Lepperton. He was one of the volunteers who brought in the body of Whiteley (q.v.). For some years he was secretary to the Taranaki Provincial Council and in 1869 he became a member (for Grey and Bell). That constituency he represented until 1873, and thereafter New Plymouth until his retirement (Apr 1874). He was a member of the executive the whole of the time and for a month or two in 1870 was deputy-superintendent. Whitcombe had a caustic pen and his later days in the Council were marked by heated political controversies, as a result of which he was found guilty of libelling Atkinson. In Apr 1874 he was appointed commissioner of crown lands, with several positions of minor importance, sheriff and manager of the cemetery. Retiring in 1885, he went to Auckland, where he was for some time private secretary to Sir George Grey and secretary of the Auckland Society of Arts. He visited the Pacific islands on behalf of an Auckland newspaper and made a special report on Tonga. Afterwards he became sub-editor of the Auckland Bell. In 1890 he went to live in Tonga as foreign secretary to the King, a position in which his caustic pen again made difficulties. In 1897 he returned to Taranaki, but three years later went back to Tonga and thence to Rotuma. In May 1901, on the death of his son-in-law (Mr Leafe), he became assistant editor of the Polynesian Gazette in Fiji. He was an accomplished linguist.

Whitcombe married (1871) a daughter of B. Wells (q.v.). He died on 4 Jan 1904.

Cycl. NZ, vi (p); NZ Herald, 6-8 Aug 1885; Taranaki Herald, 5 Jan 1904.

Reference: Volume 2, page 250

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