John Cornell Chads

Who was John Cornell Chads?

Lieutenant-colonel John Cornell Chads joined the Royal Marines and reached the rank of 2nd Lieutenant on 4 May 1809, aged 16. He became a Captain in the 1st West India Regiment on 27 January 1820. He became a Major on 22 April 1836, still serving in the West India Regiment. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel on 3 March 1843 and then retired on full pay aged 50. He returned to England with his family and lived in Portsea, Hampshire until his appointment as President of the British Virgin Islands in 1852. He died in Government House, Tortola on 28 February 1854 with the rank of Colonel.

On 5 December 1816, he married Miss Elizabeth Stiles Parker in Tortola. John Cornell and Elizabeth Chads had eight children, two sons and six daughters.

From 1852 until his death on 28 February 1854, he was the President of the British Virgin Islands

Chads was President of the British Virgin Islands during the great insurrection of 1853. On 1 August 1853, a large body of rural labourers came to Road Town to protest the imposition of a new cattle tax. The authorities immediately read the Riot Act, and made two arrests. Violence then erupted almost immediately.