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Leicester Paul Beaufort

British barrister and colonial administrator (1853–1926)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ1813859 ↗
Source-derived summary

Sir Leicester Paul Beaufort (13 December 1853 – 12 August 1926), was a British barrister and colonial governor of North Borneo.

Early life

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. His grandfather on the paternal side was Rear Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort.

Education

Beaufort was educated at Westminster School and the University of Oxford, graduating as a Master of Arts and Bachelor of Civil Law. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1879. In 1888 he was elected to the London School Board as one of the representatives of Greenwich.

Career

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. 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.

He retired in 1918 and lived at Wynberg, Cape Colony.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Leicester Paul Beaufort” as british barrister and colonial administrator (1853–1926). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1853, 1926, 1879, 1888—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1853-12-13. The account is most persuasive where Leicester, Paul and Beaufort can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as british barrister and colonial administrator (1853–1926). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1813859. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1853, 1926, 1879 and 1888.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Leicester Paul Beaufort”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Leicester Paul Beaufort primary sources, Leicester Paul Beaufort archive and Leicester research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Leicester Paul Beaufort” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.