Francis Jeune, 1st Baron St Helier

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.{{Cite book |last=Morrah |first=Herbert Arthur |date=1923 |title=The Oxford Union 1823-1923 |publisher=Cassell and Company |location=London |pages=188}} 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.[http://thepeerage.com/p5621.htm#i56205 thepeerage.com Francis Henry Jeune, 1st and last Baron St. Helier]

In 1888, Jeune became a Queen's Counsel.{{London Gazette |issue=25789 |date=21 February 1888 |page=1154 }} In 1891, he was appointed as a Judge in the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court and knighted.{{London Gazette |issue=26130 |date=30 January 1891 |page=561 }}{{London Gazette |issue=26140 |date=3 March 1891 |page=1201 }} In June 1892, he became President of the Division in succession to Sir Charles Parker Butt{{London Gazette |issue=26294 |date=3 June 1892 |page=3287 }} and sworn of the Privy Council.{{London Gazette |issue=26303 |date=1 July 1892 |page=3786 }}

In December of that year, he was also appointed Judge Advocate General by Liberal Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone.{{London Gazette |issue=26360 |date=3 January 1893 |page=3 }} 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).{{London Gazette |issue=26867 |date=25 June 1897 |page=8569 |supp=y}} 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,{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=The Coronation Honours |date=26 June 1902 |page=5 |issue=36804}}{{London Gazette |issue=27453 |date=11 July 1902 |page=4441}} and was invested by King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on 8 August 1902.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Court Circular |date=9 August 1902 |page=6 |issue=36842}} In February 1905, he was granted an annuity of £3,500{{London Gazette |issue=27761 |date=3 February 1905 |page=841 }} 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.{{London Gazette |issue=27768 |date=24 February 1905 |page=1394 }}

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.

The Mahometan Power in India - 1867{{Cite book|last=Sir Francis Henry Jeune|url=https://archive.org/details/mahometanpoweri00jeungoog|title=The Mahometan Power in India|date=1867|publisher=T. & G. Shrimpton|others=University of Michigan|language=English}}

{{Reflist}}

• The Times, Monday, 22 August 1904; p. 7
• The Times, Monday, 10 April 1905; p. 6
• The Times, Monday, 26 January 1931; p. 12
• The Times, Friday, 8 October 1965; p. 1
• The Times, Saturday, 4 June 1966; p. 2
• [https://www.fulltextarchive.com/page/History-Of-The-Mackenzies7/#p17 "Alexander Mackenzie, History of The Mackenzies"]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060309085216/http://worldroots.com/brigitte/famous/m/maryenglanddesc1496-42.htm Profile at worldroots.com]

{{Commons category|Francis Jeune, 1st Baron St Helier}}

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{{succession box | before=Sir Charles Parker Butt | title=President of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division | years=1892–1905 | after=Sir Gorell Barnes}}

{{succession box | before=William Thackeray Marriott | title=Judge Advocate General | years=1892–1905 | after= Thomas Milvain }}

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Category:1843 births

Category:1905 deaths

Category:People educated at Harrow School

Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford

Category:Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom

Category:19th-century English judges

Category:People from Saint Helier

Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath

Category:Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division judges

Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom

Category:Knights Bachelor

Category:Presidents of the Oxford Union

Category:20th-century English judges

Category:Peers created by Edward VII

Category:Presidents of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division