Sir John McLeavy Brown, (27 November 1835 – 6 April 1926) was an Irish civil servant in the British Colonial Service. Brown was born in Magheragall,

Lisburn Lisburn (; ) is a city in Northern Ireland. It is southwest of Belfast city centre, on the River Lagan, which forms the boundary between County Antrim and County Down. First laid out in the 17th century by English and Welsh settlers, with ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. After attending

Queen's University Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

and

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

, McLeavy Brown made his way to China, where at age 32 he became first secretary to the Burlingame Mission, the first Chinese diplomatic mission to the United States and Europe. A lawyer by trade, he later joined the Customs Service in April 1873. In 1874, he was appointed Deputy Commissioner in

Canton Canton may refer to: Administrative division terminology * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and ent ...

. McLeavy Brown impressed his superior,

Sir Robert Hart Sir Robert Hart, 1st Baronet, (20 February 1835 – 20 September 1911) was a British diplomat and official in the Qing Chinese government, serving as the second Inspector-General of China's Imperial Maritime Custom Service (IMCS) from 1863 to ...

, to the extent that Hart offered him the position of manager of Korea's Customs Department. While serving in this capacity he was offered, by King (later Emperor) Kojong, a position as financial advisor and Chief Commissioner of Customs in 1893. At the time of his appointment the Japanese legation was in the ascendency. Following the murder of Queen Min in 1895, the King fled, but not before signing a decree giving McLeavy Brown absolute control over the treasury. Following Japan's victory in the

Russo Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

Japan began to exert more control over Korea and in August 1905 McLeavy Brown left the Customs Department and Korea. In 1913 he was appointed Counsellor to the Chinese Legation in London, a position he held until his death in 1926.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McLeavy Brown, John 1835 births 1926 deaths Alumni of Queen's University Belfast Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Knights Bachelor