Sir Francis Fleming was a British administrator who held appointments in eleven colonies. The son of James Fleming, Q.C. of Dorset Square and Julia Matilda daughter of Major John Canning and niece of Francis Canning of Foxcote Warwick. He attended Downside School near Bath, studied law at the Middle Temple, and became a barrister in 1866. Three years later, from 28 April 1869, he became acting District and Stipendiary Magistrate in Mauritius earning £700 per annum, successively followed by Crown Solicitor, acting District and Stipendiary Magistrate in Savanne, acting District and Stipendiary Magistrate, and Poor Law Guardian in Flacq, District and Stipendiary Magistrate in Black River, and acting District and Stipendiary Magistrate in Moka. Whilst in Mauritius he also went to Seyebelles as acting District Judge for four months. From then held a succession of posts as district judge in Jamaica ; Attorney-General of Barbados and acting Chief Justice ; and acting Chief Justice of St. Lucia. This was followed in 1880 as private secretary to Sir G. C. Strahan, administering the Government of the Cape, and in 1881, removed to British Guiana as a Puisne Judge from 1882 to 1883. In 1883 was transferred to Ceylon as a Queen's Advocate, later becoming Attorney-General and acting Chief Justice. It was December 1886, as he was to be awarded the Order of St Michael and St George, he returned to Mauritius to take up the roles as colonial secretary and administrator from 24 February 1887 to December 1888. For over a year he was Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong between 1890 and 1892. While Governor-in-Chief at Sierra Leone, from 16 May 1892 to January 1894, he witnessed in November 1892 the first systematic strike of the 800 underpaid labouring men of the Royal Engineers' Department in the history of that colony. Fleming was knighted on 1 January 1892, and in the same year he married Constance Mary Kavanagh, daughter of Maurice Dennis Kavanagh and Mary Constantia née Clifford and granddaughter of Hugh Clifford, 7th Baron Clifford of Chudleigh. Their only son, Hugh Joseph, became a Sec.-Lieut., and was killed in action during WWI on 24 August 1916 at Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. Fleming then took the post as governor of the Leeward Islands from January 1894 where he remained till his retirement in 1901. Fleming died at the age of 8O at home at 9 Sydney Place, South Kensington, on 4 December 1922. His will was probated the following month; his widow survived him by nearly three decades.
