Harris Rendell Oke, CMG, MC and Bar (1 September 1891 – 18 December 1940) was a wounded veteran of World War I who became Colonial Secretary, The Gambia, British West Africa (1934–1940) and served as its Acting Governor and Commander-in-Chief for six extended periods between 1934 and 1940.
Youth and Family
Harris R. Oke was the great-grandson of Robert Oke (1794–1870), the first lighthouse inspector in Newfoundland, and the grandson of William Robert Oke (1833–1894), whose business was in operation for more than a century. W. R. Oke established a carriage factory on Victoria Street in Harbour Grace in 1856 and moved to Halifax, NS. He relocated to the corner of Cochrane and Duckworth Streets in St. John's by 1879, eventually employing four of his sons as W. R. Oke & Sons. Oke's grandfather moved the carriage factory to the corner of Prescott and Duckworth Streets in 1890. Oke was born the following year (1 September 1891), and then the premises and its contents were destroyed in the Great Fire of 1892. Although uninsured, the family managed to rebuild the business at the same location and rented a portion of the property on Prescott Street to other businesses in what became known as the "Oke Building". The company expanded to produce boxcars for Robert Gillespie Reid (Halls Bay Line, Newfoundland Railroad). By 1894, they provided undertaking and funeral services, similar to other carriage builders of the day, which continued until the business was dissolved in 1968.
During Oke's life, the Oke's Carriage Factory was shepherded by his father, John Carnell Oke (1857–1931), and from 1926 by Oke's brother, Gordon Jeans Oke (1889–1977), when their father became incapacitated by chronic illness. The Okes were known for artistic carriage painting and for constructing the dog-cart presented by the children of Newfoundland, accompanied by the Newfoundland dog Bouncer, to the Duke & Duchess of Cornwall and York (later George V and Queen Mary), during their visit to the colony in 1901. An example of an Oke 19th century dog-cart (two-wheeled child’s carriage) is in the collection of The National Trust Carriage Museum (Devon). A Newfoundland dog, Sable Chief, in the same bloodline as Bouncer, was presented as mascot to the WW1 Newfoundland Regiment before leaving St. John's on the .
Multi-generations of Oke families resided in St. John's connected to land on the south side of Quidi Vidi Lake where Oke grew up, at the juncture of Forest Road and Quidi Vidi Road, in the vicinity known as "Oke's Corner". Oke was named for his paternal grandmother, Mary Jane Harris Carnell (1832–1926), who was heir to a portion of the 20 acre New Forest estate owned by the Gill family from the 1700s. Oke is a descendant of Nicholas Gill, Sr. (d. 1787), a naval officer and judge of the vice admiralty court who became Chief Magistrate of St. John's, and who first occupied this land. His older brother, Michael Gill, Jr. (1699–1772), raised a militia to reinforce the British garrison and was the militia's first Lieutenant-Colonel, a Justice of the Peace from 1733, and held several other prominent positions in St. John's. Their father, Captain Michael Gill, Sr. (1673–1720), was an international trader in Massachusetts who is famous for defending Bonavista, NL from a brutal French and Indian attack in 1704 during Queen Anne's War. A plaque commemorating Captain Gill is mounted on the grounds of the Bonavista Court House. In 1960, a portion of the Oke family residence was converted to house the Oke funeral business. This and other homes once owned by the Oke family straddling both sides of the north end of Quidi Vidi Road are still standing in the historic "Oke's Corner" neighborhood.
Oke was educated at Bishop Feild College and enjoyed fishing, shooting, motoring (driving an automobile), golf and tennis. He was the 4th generation of Oke family in Newfoundland to participate in Freemasonry, a tradition passed down from family in England. His maternal grandfather, John Jeans, was secretary of St. John's Lodge for 40 y. Oke's brother Gordon, was Master of Lodge Tasker No. 454 (St. John's, NL), Senior Grand Warden of the District Grand Lodge of Newfoundland (both Lodges of the Grand Lodge of Scotland), and was Director of the Masonic Mutual Life Insurance Association (St. John's, NL) for ten years.