Sir Leicester Paul Beaufort (13 December 1853 – 12 August 1926), was a British barrister and colonial governor of North Borneo.[1][2]
Beaufort was the second son of the Reverend Daniel Augustus Beaufort of Warburton, Cheshire and his wife Emily Newel, daughter of Sir John Davis, former Governor of Hong Kong.[3] His grandfather on the paternal side was Rear Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort.[citation needed]
Beaufort was educated at Westminster School and the University of Oxford, graduating as a Master of Arts and Bachelor of Civil Law.[2] He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1879.[3][2] In 1888 he was elected to the London School Board as one of the representatives of Greenwich.[4]
In 1889 he began his career in colonial administration when he was appointed a judicial commissioner and government secretary in British North Borneo. From 1895 to 1899 he was Governor of North Borneo and Commander in Chief of the Colony of Labuan.[5][3][1] From 1901 to 1911 he was Chief Justice of North-Eastern Rhodesia and from 1911 to 1918 a judge of the High Court of Northern Rhodesia.[1][3]
He retired in 1918 and lived at Wynberg, Cape Colony.[1][3] He was knighted in 1919.[6][3][1]
In 1883 he married Edith Mary Griffith, daughter of an Anglican clergyman.[2][3]