The British commissioners of Bechuanaland Protectorate were variously titled "Resident", "Special Commissioner", "Administrator", "Resident Commissioner", and "Commissioner". The territory, which was not a British possession, was called "Bechuanaland Protectorate", "Bechuanaland High Commission Territory", and "Bechuanaland". An area known as British Bechuanaland was a Crown colony from 1885 to 1895, when it was merged into the Cape Colony.