John Henry Lefroy

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Sir John Henry Lefroy, ca. 1880

Sir John Henry Lefroy

CB FRS (28 January 1817 – 11 April 1890)[1] was an English military officer and later colonial administrator who also distinguished himself with his scientific studies of the Earth's magnetism.[1]

Biography

Lefroy was a son of the Rev. John Henry George Lefroy, of Ewshot House (subsequently Itchel) in Hampshire, England,

Fort Simpson in the west. On 9 June 1848, Lefroy was made a member of the Royal Society
.

Lefroy remained in Toronto until 1853, continuing his observations and managing the observatory. On 16 April 1846, he married his first wife Emily Mary, a daughter of Sir John Robinson, 1st Baronet, of Toronto;[1] they had two daughters and two sons. Lefroy also helped found the Royal Canadian Institute, where he was the first vice-president in 1851/52 and then president in 1852/53. Before his return to London, he managed the transfer of the Toronto Magnetic and Meteorological Observatory to the provincial government.

Upon his return to London in April 1853, Lefroy held various office positions in the

Foreign and Commonwealth Office and was appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Bermuda from 1871 to 1877. These positions, always held together, were reserved for military officers as Bermuda was an Imperial fortress and the most important British naval and military base in the Western Hemisphere, with the Governor in his role of Commander-in-Chief, or General Officer Commanding, having control of the large regular army garrison.[1] He left this position due to illness and returned to England, but later served as Administrator of Tasmania[4] from 21 October 1880 to 7 December 1881.[1]

John Henry Lefroy was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1870, and knighted in 1877 (KCMG).[1]

Legacy

A small town in Ontario, Lefroy, situated on the south end of Lake Simcoe was named after John Henry Lefroy.

Palliser Expedition named it in 1858, or if the name is due to George Mercer Dawson
, 1884.

The Lefroy House care home, which occupies the former separated isolation ward of the Royal Naval Hospital of the Royal Naval Dockyard on Ireland Island, in Bermuda, is named for Lefroy.[5]

The Surveyor: Portrait of Captain John Henry Lefroy
, ca. 1845, sold at a record price of more than C$5 million in 2002. The painting is sometimes also called Scene in the Northwest.

The painting Scene in the Northwest: Portrait of John Henry Lefroy by Paul Kane showing John Henry Lefroy, which had been in possession of the Lefroy family in England, garnered a record price at an auction at Sotheby's in Toronto on 25 February 2002, when Canadian billionaire Kenneth Thomson won the bid at C$5,062,500 including fees (US$3,172,567.50 at the time). Thomson subsequently donated the painting as part of his Thomson Collection to the Art Gallery of Ontario.

In 1960, the Ontario Heritage Foundation, Ministry of Citizenship and Culture erected a Provincial Military Plaque dedicated to Sir John Lefroy (1817–1890) on the University of Toronto campus.

Sir John Henry Lefroy 1817–1890: A pioneer in the study of terrestrial magnetism, Lefroy was director of the magnetic observatory here from 1842 to 1853. Born in Hampshire, England, he was commissioned in the Royal Artillery at the age of seventeen and, because of his aptitude for science, was posted to St. Helena in 1839 to establish a magnetic observatory. Three years later he was transferred to Toronto. During 1843–44 Lefroy conducted the first comprehensive magnetic and meteorological survey in British North America, making observations of exceptional scope and scientific value. Before returning to England in 1853 he was instrumental in persuading the provincial government to assume responsibility for the observatory. Following a distinguished career as a soldier, scholar and colonial administrator, Lefroy was knighted in 1877.

[6][7]

Selected publications

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Mennell, Philip (1892). "Lefroy, Lieut.-General Sir John Henry" . The Dictionary of Australasian Biography. London: Hutchinson & Co – via Wikisource.
  2. ^ "Parishes: Crondall | British History Online".
  3. ISBN 9781913013400
    .
  4. ^ "Governors of Tasmania (Including Lieutenant-Governors and Administrators)". Parliament of Tasmania. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2012.
  5. ^ "Lefroy House Care Community". Government of Bermuda. Retrieved 30 July 2023. The Lefroy House Care Community is a government owned, multi-level elder care home that promotes purpose, fun, and spontaneity in the lives of elders. It sits on attractive and spacious grounds just outside of Dockyard in Sandys Parish.
  6. ^ "DHH - Memorials Details Search Results". Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 5 November 2012. Ontario Heritage Foundation plaque
  7. ^ "Sir John Henry Lefroy". Toronto's Historical Plaques. Archived from the original on 14 April 2017. Retrieved 13 April 2017.

Further reading

  • Lefroy, J.H. In Search of the Magnetic North: A Soldier- Surveyor's Letters from the North-west, 1843–1955, edited by George F.G. Stanley, The MacMillan Company of Canada Limited, 1955.
  • Lefroy, Autobiography of General Sir J.H. Lefroy published posthumously by his second wife "for private circulation only", London: Pardon and Sons Ltd, 1895, of which an excerpt is available online.
  • Loffroy of Cambray, A Supplement, London: Privately printed by Ebenezer and Son, Ltd., 1961.
  • Lefroy, J.H. Memorials of the Discovery and Early Settlement of the Bermuda or Somer Islands, 1515–1685, compiled from the colonial records and other original sources., The Bermuda Historical Society, the Bermuda National Trust, 1981.

External links

Professional and academic associations
Preceded by President of the Royal Canadian Institute Succeeded by
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