John Henry Lefroy

Sir John Henry Lefroy KCMG 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.

John Henry George Lefroy, of Ewshot House (subsequently Itchel) in Hampshire, England,[2] and his wife, Sophia Cottrell.

When the British government launched a project under the direction of Edward Sabine to study terrestrial magnetism, he was chosen to set up and supervise the observatory on Saint Helena.

[1] When he retired from the army in 1870 with the honorary rank of Major General, he entered the Colonial Service (now the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and was appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Bermuda from 1871 to 1877.

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.

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.

During 1843–44 Lefroy conducted the first comprehensive magnetic and meteorological survey in British North America, making observations of exceptional scope and scientific value.

Sir John Henry Lefroy, ca. 1880
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 .