Francis Humphrys

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Francis Henry Humphrys GCMG GCVO KBE CIE (24 April 1879 – 28 August 1971) was a British cricketer, colonial administrator and diplomat.

Francis Henry Humphrys was born in Shropshire, at Beatrice Street, Oswestry, where his father was assistant master at Oswestry School. He was educated at Shrewsbury School, where he was captain of cricket and head of the school, and Christ Church, Oxford, where he played first-class cricket for Oxford University. His first-class debut came against the touring Australians in 1899. He played 3 further first-class matches in 1900, the last coming against Sussex. In his 4 first-class matches, he took 13 wickets at a bowling average of 19.46, with best figures of 4/16. While at school, and later, he also played Minor Counties Championship cricket for Wiltshire.

After graduating from Oxford in 1900, Humphrys joined the Worcestershire Regiment and served in the Second Boer War. Following the war he was in February 1902 seconded to the Indian Staff Corps, and in October the same year he left his regiment and was transferred to the Indian Army. He was seconded to the Political Service and spent most of this part of his career in the North-West Frontier Province, although in 1918, towards the end of World War I he returned to Europe and served with a temporary commission in the newly formed Royal Air Force. In 1919 he returned to India, first as a political agent and then, in 1921, as deputy Foreign Secretary in the Government of India.