Francis Jeune, 1st Baron St Helier

The Right Honourable
The Lord St Helier
GCB PC
Lord St Helier.
President of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division
In office
2 June 1892 – 30 January 1905
Preceded bySir Charles Butt
Succeeded bySir Gorell Barnes
Judge Advocate General
In office
31 December 1892 – 1905
Prime MinisterWilliam Ewart Gladstone
The Earl of Rosebery
Preceded byWilliam Thackeray Marriott
Succeeded by-
Personal details
Born(1843-03-17)17 March 1843
Died9 April 1905(1905-04-09) (aged 62)
NationalityBritish
Spouse(s)Susan Stuart-Mackenzie
(d. 1931)
Alma materBalliol College, Oxford

Francis Henry Jeune, 1st Baron St Helier, GCB, PC (17 March 1843 – 9 April 1905), known as Sir Francis Jeune (1891–1905), was a British judge.[1] He was President of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court of Justice (1892–1905) and Judge Advocate General (1892–1905). According to, F. L. Wiswall Jr., "For better or for worse, it is fair to say that Sir Francis Henry Jeune had a greater influence upon the development of the Law of Admiralty than any single common lawyer since Coke."

Background and education

Jeune was the son of The Right Reverend Francis Jeune, Bishop of Peterborough, and Margaret, daughter of Henry Symons. Educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford, he was President of the Oxford Union in 1864.[2] During his time at the Union the question of what to do about the fading murals in the debating chamber recently painted by artists associated with the Pre-Raphaelites came up for discussion. Jeune declared them to be 'hideous' and said he did not care what became of them. In 1868, he was called to the Bar, Inner Temple.[3]

Judicial career

In 1888, Jeune became a Queen's Counsel.[4] In 1891, he was appointed as a Judge in the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court and knighted.[5][6] In June 1892, he became President of the Division in succession to Sir Charles Parker Butt[7] and sworn of the Privy Council.[8]

In December of that year, he was also appointed Judge Advocate General by Liberal Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone.[9] He continued as President of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division until January 1905 when, beset by ill health, he resigned. In 1897, he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB).[10] Five years later he was promoted to a Knight Grand Cross of the order (GCB) in the 1902 Coronation Honours list published on 26 June 1902,[11][12] and was invested by King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on 8 August 1902.[13] In February 1905, he was granted an annuity of £3,500[14] and raised to the peerage as Baron St Helier of St Helier in the Island of Jersey and of Arlington Manor in the County of Berkshire.[15]

Family

On 17 August 1881, Lord St Helier married Susan Mary Elizabeth Stanley, the recently widowed daughter of Keith William Stewart-Mackenzie and Hannah Charlotte Hope-Vere. In 1882, their only child together, a son, Francis Jeune, was born; on 19 August 1904, he died of enteric fever in Poona, India. Lord St Helier died the next year, on 9 April 1905, aged 62. As he had no surviving male issue, the barony died with him. Lady St Helier became a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1925. She died on 25 January 1931, aged 85.[3]

Works

The Mahometan Power in India - 1867[16]

References

  1. ^ Herbert Stephen, Jeune, Francis Henry, Baron St Helier (1843–1905), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, September 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34188
  2. ^ Morrah, Herbert Arthur (1923). The Oxford Union 1823-1923. London: Cassell and Company. p. 188.
  3. ^ a b thepeerage.com Francis Henry Jeune, 1st and last Baron St. Helier
  4. ^ "No. 25789". The London Gazette. 21 February 1888. p. 1154.
  5. ^ "No. 26130". The London Gazette. 30 January 1891. p. 561.
  6. ^ "No. 26140". The London Gazette. 3 March 1891. p. 1201.
  7. ^ "No. 26294". The London Gazette. 3 June 1892. p. 3287.
  8. ^ "No. 26303". The London Gazette. 1 July 1892. p. 3786.
  9. ^ "No. 26360". The London Gazette. 3 January 1893. p. 3.
  10. ^ "No. 26867". The London Gazette (Supplement). 25 June 1897. p. 8569.
  11. ^ "The Coronation Honours". The Times. No. 36804. London. 26 June 1902. p. 5.
  12. ^ "No. 27453". The London Gazette. 11 July 1902. p. 4441.
  13. ^ "Court Circular". The Times. No. 36842. London. 9 August 1902. p. 6.
  14. ^ "No. 27761". The London Gazette. 3 February 1905. p. 841.
  15. ^ "No. 27768". The London Gazette. 24 February 1905. p. 1394.
  16. ^ Sir Francis Henry Jeune (1867). The Mahometan Power in India. University of Michigan. T. & G. Shrimpton.

Sources

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Francis Jeune, 1st Baron St Helier.
Legal offices
Preceded by President of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division
1892–1905 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Judge Advocate General
1892–1905 		Succeeded by