Cecil Stephen Northcote

Major Cecil Stephen Northcote CBE (1878–1945) was a British military officer who was governor of Mongalla Province in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan from 1918 to 1919, and then of the Nuba Mountains province from 1919 to 1927.

Northcote joined the 7th Battalion, the Rifle Brigade (the Prince Consort's Own), and on 11 March 1891 was promoted from Second Lieutenant to Lieutenant. On 6 May 1895 he was promoted to Captain. On 7 May 1904 he resigned his Commission and was granted the honorary rank of Major. Northcote joined the Egyptian army in April 1909. He was seconded to the Sudan Political Service in February 1912, and was posted to Bahr al-Ghazal.

Northcote was appointed Governor of Mongalla from 1918 until 1919. When he took office in Mongalla he was advised by his predecessor, R.C.R. Owen, to exclude all northern merchants from the province. Owen explained that "if a Jehad is ever started in the Sudan and Northern Africa, it would be a great thing if the countries south of the Sudd were free from it and if we could link up with Uganda which is practically entirely Christian and so have an anti-Islam buffer or bulwark in this part of Africa".

When Northcote was appointed governor in 1918, the fifteen provincial governorships in the Sudan under Governor General Reginald Wingate were held by eight army officers, or former officers, and severn civilians. By 1924, when Wingate's successor Sit Lee Stack died, Northcote and M.J. Wheatley in Bahr al-Ghazal were the only governors with military backgrounds. Northcote was transferred to the Nuba Mountains in 1919, and was succeeded in Mongalla by Chauncey Hugh Stigand. Northcote was governor of the Nuba mountains province until he retired in 1928. His successor was Mr. J.A. Gillan.