Sir George Leonard Staunton, 1st Baronet (10 April 1737 – 14 January 1801) was an Anglo-Irish physician, judge and diplomat best known for his participation in the Macartney Embassy.

[1] Staunton initially worked as a physician in the British West Indies, where he acquired slave plantations on Grenada and Dominica.

Staunton died at his London house, 17 Devonshire Street, on 14 January 1801 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, where a monument by Sir Francis Chantrey was erected to his memory around 1808.

This multi-volume work was taken chiefly from papers of Lord Macartney and Sir Erasmus Gower, Commander of the expedition.

Sir Joseph Banks, the President of the Royal Society, was responsible for selecting and arranging engraving of the illustrations in this official record.