Thomas LeFanu

Thomas Philip LeFanu CB (9 December 1858 - 21 October 1945) was an Irish civil servant.^[1]

Born in Ireland to a Hugenot family, he was the son of William Richard Le Fanu (1816- 1894) and his wife Henrietta Victorine Barrington, daughter of Sir Matthew Barrington, 2nd Baronet.^[2] He was educated in England at Haileybury College and Trinity College, Cambridge,^[3] from where he graduated with a BA in 1881.

LeFanu worked first in the Public Record Office, Ireland from 1881; transferring to the Chief Secretary's Office in 1884. LeFanu rose to the post of Private Secretary to the Chief Secretary of Ireland, Augustine Birrell, between 1910 and 1913. In 1913 he was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the British honours system. From 1913 to 1926, through the period when Ireland gained independence, he was Commissioner of the Public Works. LeFanu was Vice-President of the Royal Irish Academy, from 1918-1920 and again from 1925-1930. LeFanu was President of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland between 1933 and 1936.

He married Florence Sophia Mabel Sullivan, daughter of Reverend James Sullivan, on 3 July 1890. They had two children; their daughter Lucie Catherine Le Fanu (1901-1996) married the educationalist John Traill Christie; their son William Richard LeFanu (1904-1995) was a librarian and husband to composer Elizabeth Maconchy. The composer Nicola LeFanu is his granddaughter.

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