Leslie Probyn
Sir Leslie Probyn | |
---|---|
![]() Troops parade past Leslie Probyn during his governorship of Sierra Leone | |
Governor of Sierra Leone | |
In office 3 October 1904 – 1910 | |
Monarch | Edward VII |
Preceded by | Charles King-Harman |
Succeeded by | |
Governor of Jamaica | |
In office 11 June 1918 – 1924 | |
Monarch | George V |
Preceded by | |
Succeeded by | |
Personal details | |
Born | 23 February 1862 |
Died | 17 December 1938 Folkestone, Kent | (aged 76)
Nationality | British |
Spouse(s) | Emily Davies |
Children | Dorothy Emily Probyn Cokayne (1889-1963) Sybil Rose Probyn Hayne (b. 1888) |
Sir Leslie Probyn KCMG (23 February 1862 – 17 December 1938)[1] was an administrator for the British Empire.
Career[]
Probyn was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1884.[2]
He began his career as a British colonial administrator in the Caribbean. From 1893 to 1896, he served as Attorney-General of British Honduras. In 1896, he was appointed Attorney General of Grenada.[3] He was then moved to west Africa, serving successively as Secretary and Acting High Commissioner of Southern Nigeria (1901-1904) and governor of Sierra Leone (1904-1910).
Probyn then returned to the Caribbean, where he was first Governor of Barbados (1911-1918) and then of Jamaica (1918-1924). During his tenure as governor of Jamaica, women were granted suffrage. However, Probyn mandated that this be subject to "safe and rigid qualifications", meaning that the majority of black Jamaican women were still effectively denied the right to vote.[4] This was in contrast to his service in Sierra Leone, where he increased native suffrage and sought to make sure that laws were not enacted without active native participation in the process. During his six years as governor of Sierra Leone (1904 to 1910) he held "referendums" amongst "natives" to judge whether or not there was popular support for policies amongst the indigenous population. As a matter of policy in Sierra Leone, Probyn would not enforce rules unless he felt that Sierra Leone's native majority were in favor of them.
On his retirement from the colonial service he returned to England, where he served as Chairman of the Royal Victoria Hospital, Folkestone.[5]
Personal life[]
Probyn was one of four children of Edmund Probyn, JP and DL, and Charlotte Seymour Jones. He was educated at Charterhouse School. He was made a KCMG in 1909.[6] He married Emily Davies (d. 1926), with whom he had two daughters, Sybil Rose (b. 1888) and Dorothy Emily (1889-1963).[7] Through his sister, Evelyn, he was uncle of the seventh earl of Lisburne.
Probyn was also the author of a number of treatises on legal practice, and was a regular contributor to the literary magazine The Nineteenth Century and After.
Select bibliography[]
- Leslie Probyn, Statutory form of a bill of sale, with forms of, and rules for drawing same; also a digest of all the reported cases (London, 1888)
- Leslie Probyn, The jurisdiction and practice of the Mayor's court together with appendices of forms, rules and statutes specially relating to the court. (London, 1896)
References[]
- ^ https://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=willperf&op=SHOW&surname=Proby%2C+Joh
- ^ Who's Who 1935. 1935. p. 2725. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
- ^ "Obituaries". The Herald. Glasgow. 20 December 1938. Retrieved 2 December 2017.
- ^ James, Winston (2000). A Fierce Hatred of Injustice: Claude McKay's Jamaica and His Poetry of Rebellion. Verso. p. 17. Retrieved 2 December 2017.
- ^ Who's Who 1935. 1935. p. 2725. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
- ^ "Obituaries". The Herald. Glasgow. 20 December 1938. Retrieved 2 December 2017.
- ^ Who's Who 1935. 1935. p. 2725. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
- 1862 births
- 1938 deaths
- People educated at Charterhouse School
- Members of the Middle Temple
- Governors of Jamaica
- Governors of Sierra Leone
- Governors of Barbados
- Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George
- Attorneys General of British Grenada
- Attorneys-General of British Honduras