Francis Fleming (colonial administrator)
Francis Fleming | |
---|---|
16th Attorney General of Ceylon | |
In office 4 July 1883 – 1886 | |
Preceded by | Bruce Burnside |
Succeeded by | Samuel Grenier |
Personal details | |
Born | Francis Fleming 31 July 1842 London, Middlesex, England |
Died | 4 December 1922 London, Middlesex, England | (aged 80)
Citizenship | British |
Spouse | Constance Mary Kavanagh (1858–1950) |
Children | Sec.-Lieut. Hugh Joseph Fleming (1895–1916) |
Occupation | British colonial administrator |
Sir Francis Fleming CMG KCMG (31 July 1842 – 4 December 1922) (Chinese: 菲林明) was a administrator having appointments in no fewer than eleven British colonies.
The son of James Fleming (1812–1887), Q.C. of Dorset Square and Julia Matilda (1811–1875) daughter of Major John Canning (1775–1824) and niece of Francis Canning (1769–1831) of Foxcote Warwick.
He attended Downside School near Bath, and studied law at the Middle Temple, and was called to the bar in 1866.
Three years later, from 28 April 1869, he became acting District and Stipendiary Magistrate in Mauritius earning £700 per annum, successively followed by Crown Solicitor (from 15 April 1872), acting District and Stipendiary Magistrate in Savanne (2 November 1872), acting District and Stipendiary Magistrate, and Poor Law Guardian in Flacq (1 March 1873), District and Stipendiary Magistrate in Black River (1 January 1874), and acting District and Stipendiary Magistrate in Moka.The Mauritius Almanac and Colonial Register. 1874. p. 183.</ref> Whilst in Mauritius he also went to Seyebelles as acting District Judge for four months.[1]
From then held a succession of posts as district judge in Jamaica (1876-1878); attorney-general of Barbados and acting Chief Justice (from 1878); and acting Chief Justice of St. Lucia.
This was followed in 1880 as private secretary to Sir G. C. Strahan, administering the Government of the Cape, and in 1881, removed to British Guiana as a Puisne Judge from 1882 to 1883. In 1883 was transferred to Ceylon as as Queen's Advocate, later becoming Attorney-General and acting Chief Justice.[2]
It was December 1886, as he was to be warded the Order of St Michael and St George[3], he returned to Mauritius to take up the roles as colonial secretary and administrator (acting governor) of from 24 February 1887 to December 1888.[4][5]
For over a year he was Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong between 1890 and 1892[6] (years later the Fleming Road in Wan Chai, Hong Kong is named after him).
During his Administration as Governor-in-Chief at Sierra Leone, from 16 May 1892 to January 1894, he witnessed the first systematic strike of the 800 men underpaid-payed labouring classes of the Royal Engineers' Department in the history of that colony, as it took place in the month of November 1892.[7]
Fleming was knighted on 1 January 1892 and that same year he married Constance Mary Kavanagh (1858–1950), daughter of Maurice Dennis Kavanagh (1821–1899) and Mary Constantia née Clifford (1825–1898) and granddaughter of Hugh Clifford, 7th Baron Clifford of Chudleigh. Their only son Hugh Joseph (born 26 Jan 1895 in Warwick) became a Sec.-Lieut. and was killed in action during WWI on 24 August 1916 at Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France.[8]
Fleming then took the post as governor of the Leeward Islands from January 1894 where he remained till his retirement in 1901.
Fleming died at the age of 8O, at his residence, No.9 Sydney Place, South Kensington, on 4 December 1922[9]. His will was probated the following month and his widow survived him by nearly three decades.
References
- ^ Eyre, G. E. (1876). Report of the Commissioners. p. 17.
- ^ Fleming, Francis. Men at the Bar. p. 157.
- ^ The Solicitors' Journal Vol.34. 1890. p. 49.
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(help) - ^ The Mauritius Almanac and Commercial Handbook. 1922. p. 54.
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(help) - ^ http://www.britishempire.co.uk/maproom/mauritius/mauritiusadmin.htm
- ^ Norton-Kyshe, J. W. (1898). The History of the Laws and Courts of Hong-kong... p. 137.
- ^ Crooks, J. J. (1900). A Short History of Sierra Leone... p. 137.
- ^ Burnand, F. C. (1917). The Catholic Who's Who Vol. 10. p. 508.
- ^ Obituary: West Indies Chronicle Volume 37. 1922. p. 568.
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External links
- "Sir Francis Fleming". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 24 March 2011. (web image not currently available)
- Use dmy dates from February 2011
- Chief Secretaries of Hong Kong
- Governors of the Leeward Islands
- 1842 births
- 1922 deaths
- Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George
- British colonial governors and administrators in the Americas
- Attorneys-General of the Colony of Barbados
- British Mauritius people
- Colony of Jamaica judges
- British Guiana judges
- Attorneys General of British Ceylon
- People of British Hong Kong
- Governors of Sierra Leone
- British colonial governors and administrators in Africa
- British colonial governors and administrators in Asia
- Hong Kong people stubs
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