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
Robert Johnson (English politician) Robert Johnson (English politician) Robert Johnson (c 1537 – 1622) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1597 to 1614. Johnson was the eldest son of William Johnson of Crawley, Buckinghamshire. He was a surveyor and succeeded to the properties at Crawley on the death of his father in 1558. He was Keeper of Gawle, Forest of Dean in 1591. In 1597, he was elected Member of Parliament for Monmouth Boroughs where he was named to committees on weights and measures and pawnbrokers . He was re-elected MP for Monmouth in 1601 and took a