Francis Cecil Campbell Balfour

Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Cecil Campbell Balfour was born on 8 December 1884 and died on 16 April 1965. He was the son of Colonel Eustace Balfour and Lady Frances (née Campbell). Balfour was a nephew of Arthur Balfour, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from July 1902 to December 1905. He received his education at Eton College.

In 1906, Balfour was appointed to the public works department of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. In 1912, he joined the Sudan Political Service following the intervention by the Governor-General Reginald Wingate. He served as an officer in the 6th Battalion of the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, achieving the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.

During the First World War, Balfour participated in military operations in Mesopotamia from 1917 to 1919. Notably, he played a role in suppressing a rebellion in Najaf. From 1924 to 1926, he held the position of Military Secretary to the Governor of Madras, George Goschen. Balfour married Phyllis Goschen, daughter of George Goschen, 2nd Viscount Goschen, and Lady Margaret Gathorne-Hardy, in 1920.

Between 1927 and 1928, Balfour served as the governor of the Red Sea Province of Sudan. Subsequently, from 1929 to 1930, he was appointed Governor of Mongalla Province in Sudan. Throughout his career, he received several distinctions. He was awarded the Order of the Nile (3rd class), the Military Cross, and the Order of the Lion and the Sun (2nd class). Additionally, Balfour was invested as a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire in 1919, as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1931, and as a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1953.

Balfour's career included both military service and administrative roles in the British colonial empire. He passed away at the age of eighty on 16 April 1965.