Anthony Abell

Career

Abell was born in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, on 11 December 1906, the son of George and Jessie Abell, his father was a Bank Manager. Abell (brother of George Abell, who became a civil servant) was educated at Repton School and Magdalen College, Oxford, though he failed to get a degree. He joined the then Colonial Administrative Service in 1929 and was posted to Nigeria. In 1942 he took part in Operation Postmaster, a successful raid on German and Italian ships in the port of Santa Isabella on Fernando Po, then a Spanish colony, although Spain was neutral in World War II. He was appointed Resident of Oyo Province in western Nigeria in 1949, but the following year he was offered the governorship of Sarawak, where he was concurrently High Commissioner to Brunei.

During the opening ceremony of the Brunei Airport by Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien III on 8 May 1957, he was there to attend and witness the ceremony together with other officials. On 17 December 1958, Abell flew from Kuching to Brunei after being invited by Dennis White to officiate the opening of his namesake school in Seria, Anthony Abell College on the next day. He would return to Kuching on the following day.