Rhodesia (region) was first used to refer to the region by white settlers in the 1890s who informally named their new home after Cecil Rhodes, the Company's founder and managing director. It was used in newspapers from 1891 and was made official by the Company in 1895. To confuse matters, Southern Rhodesia, which became a self-governing colony of the United Kingdom in 1923, referred to itself simply as "Rhodesia" from 1964 to 1979, and in 1965 unilaterally declared independence under that name. It thereafter briefly renamed itself "Zimbabwe Rhodesia" in 1979. The usage of the term Rhodesia to refer to the historical
William Cavendish (English politician, born 1783) William Cavendish (English politician, born 1783) Hon. William Cavendish MP (10 January 1783 – 14 January 1812) was an English nobleman and Whig politician. He was the son of Lord George Cavendish, later Earl of Burlington. He was educated at Eton College, and Trinity College, Cambridge, between 1800-03. He went on a continental Grand Tour in 1803-04, during which he visited Berlin to see the Prussian Army reviews. Although this was during the period of the Napoleonic Wars, his own military service was at home; he was commissioned Captain in the Derbyshire Militia in 1803, was promoted Major in 1804,