Want fewer ads?

Spenser Buckingham St. John, FRGS, FES, (1825—1910) was British Consul in Brunei in the mid 19th century.

St. John was introduced by James Augustus St. John, his journalist father, to James Brooke in London in 1847. He went out to Sarawak the following year as the Private Secretary and thus began a diplomatic career, becoming British Consul-General in Brunei in 1856. In 1858, St. John made two ascents of Mount Kinabalu with Hugh Low. One of the peaks of Mount Kinabalu, St. John's Peak (4,091 m - 4 metres shorter than the summit of Low's Peak), is named in his honour. He wrote a book about his explorations in Borneo, Life in the Forests of the Far East (1862); and two biographies of James Brooke (1879 and 1899).

In 1863 he became chargé d'affaires to Haiti; followed by chargé d'affaires to the Dominican Republic in 1871; promoted to resident minister of Haiti late in 1872; chargé d'affaires in Lima and minister-resident in Peru from 1874-1883.

In 1884 he published a memoir of his experiences in Haiti titled Hayti or the Black Republic that caused public outrage with its sensational tales of cannibalism within the Vodou religion. He is also quoted as saying that "The History of the country [Haiti]...is but a series of plots and revolutions followed by barbarous military executions."

St. John was envoy-extraordinary and minister-plenipotentiary to Mexico from 1884—1893, serving as Minister of the government of her Majesty near the Mexican Government of the general Porfirio Diaz, where he helped to restore relations between UK and Mexico, broken since the French intervention in Mexico.

He retired after being minister to Sweden from 1893-1896.

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Spenser St. John", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0