Francis Huntly Griffith JP, UM (1885 – 1958) was a tea and rubber planter in Ceylon and a member of parliament.

Francis Huntly Griffith was born in Glasbury, Wales, in 1885, the oldest of five children of Reverend Hubert George Griffith (c.1849-c.1927) the vicar of Glasbury and Marion Douglas née Tucker (1864-c.1942).

Francis Huntly Griffith

He travelled to Ceylon in 1909 taking up a position as a manager of a tea plantation in Matugama. In 1920 he took up the manager's role at a tea plantation in Agalawatta.

Francis Huntly Griffith

In October 1928 he married Nancy Barton née Robinson, the only daughter of Sir Arthur Robinson and Lady Annie Summers Robinson, in St. Paul's Church, Knightsbridge.

Francis Huntly Griffith

In 1931 he was elected as vice-president of the Planters' Association of Ceylon, the preeminent representative body of the country's tea industry.

On 12 March 1936 he was appointed as a nominated member of the State Council of Ceylon.

Following Ceylon's first parliamentary elections in 1947, Griffith was appointed as a member of the Ceylon House of Representatives. He was one of six members appointed by the Governor-General, to represent important interests which were not represented or inadequately represented in the House. He resigned from parliament in September 1951 and his position was filled by Robert Singleton-Salmon.

He and his wife migrated to Australia in 1952, where they resided in Ferny Creek, Victoria. Huntly died in July 1958 in Melbourne, Victoria.

References

1885 births

1958 deaths

Planters from British Ceylon

Members of the 2nd State Council of Ceylon

Members of the 1st Parliament of Ceylon

Sri Lankan people of Welsh descent

People from Powys

British expatriates in British Ceylon