Francis Sandford, 1st Baron Sandford

Francis Richard John Sandford, 1st Baron Sandford KCB, PC (14 May 1824 – 31 December 1893), known as Sir Francis Sandford between 1863 and 1891, was a British civil servant. He was Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Committee of Council on Education between 1870 and 1884, in which role he was instrumental in implementing the Elementary Education Act of 1870.

The member of an old Shropshire family, Sandford was the son of Sir Daniel Sandford by Cecilia Catherine Charnock, daughter of John Charnock. He was the grandson of the Right Reverend Daniel Sandford, Bishop of Edinburgh, and the brother of Sir Herbert Sandford, Executive Commissioner to the Melbourne Exhibition of 1880, and the Right Reverend Daniel Sandford, Bishop of Tasmania. He was educated at the Glasgow High School, the Grange School at Sunderland, the University of Glasgow and as a Snell exhibitioner at Balliol College, Oxford, where he obtained a first class in Literae Humaniores.

Sandford entered the Education office in 1848, where he was to remain except for short interludes until 1884. In 1862 he was organising secretary for the International Exhibition of that year and from 1868 to 1870 he was Assistant Under-Secretary at the Colonial Office. In 1870 he was made Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Committee of Council on Education. He played an important role in the implementation of the Elementary Education Act of 1870 introduced by William Edward Forster. Sandford combined this role with that of secretary to the Scottish Education department and to the science and art department, offices which were later split between separate individuals. According to the Dictionary of National Biography the "...work he performed in these capacities was appreciated by statesmen of all political parties".

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