Ernest Bickham Sweet-Escott

Sir Ernest Bickham Sweet-Escott, (20 August 1857 – 9 April 1941) was a British colonial administrator who was in turn governor of the British Seychelles, British Honduras, British Leeward Islands and British Fiji.

Early years Sweet-Escott was born at Bath, the fifth son of the Rev. Hay Sweet-Escott, headmaster of Somersetshire College, Bath, and Rector of Kilve, Somerset, by his wife Eliza, daughter of Rev. John Coombes Collins, Vicar of St John's Bridgwater. He was educated at the Royal Somersetshire College, Bath, Bromsgrove School and Balliol College, Oxford. From 1881 he was professor of classics at the Royal College of Mauritius.

In 1886 he became assistant colonial secretary at Mauritius and was promoted in 1889 to acting colonial secretary. His next posting was in British Honduras from May 1893 until September 1898 when he returned to take up a post as acting government clerk at the Colonial Office.

Colonial administrator Sweet-Escott then became administrator of the Seychelles in June 1899 and then Governor of the Seychelles when the post was created from 1903 to 1904. He was knighted in 1904 and became Governor of British Honduras from 15 April 1904 to 13 August 1906. From 1906 until 1912 he was Governor of the Leeward Islands.

Sweet-Escott married Mary Jane Hunt on 14 December 1881 and had five children. and a Knight Companion of the Order in the 1904 Birthday Honours.