Probyn was called to the bar at the
Middle Temple in 1884. He began his career as a British colonial administrator in the Caribbean. From 1893 to 1896, he served as
Attorney-General of
British Honduras. In 1896, he was appointed
Attorney General of Grenada. He was then moved to west Africa, serving successively as Secretary and Acting High Commissioner of
Southern Nigeria (1901-1904) and governor of Sierra Leone (1904-1910).
Sierra Leone In
Sierra Leone, he increased native suffrage and sought to make sure that laws were not enacted without active native participation in the process. During his six years as governor of Sierra Leone (1904 to 1910) he held referendums with the indigenous population to judge whether or not there was popular support for proposed policies. As a matter of policy in Sierra Leone, Probyn would not enforce rules unless he felt that Sierra Leone's native majority were in favor of them. As governor of Sierra Leone, Probyn took a stand against the practice of cannibalism, which he declared illegal. Groups of heavily militarized
Kono warriors were raiding
Mende villages. Probyn used the
British army to end the raids, and then had
Mende people from the area trained as soldiers. The raids were successfully stopped by this effort. Working as soldiers also provided prestige and good pay for the Mende-majority region. The
Leopard Society, a murder cult that engaged in ritualistic human sacrifice and cannibalism, became an issue during Probyn's tenure as governor and he had to use his authority to simultaneously investigate and prosecute cases as they emerged, while also calming down rural populations who were gripped with fear; with regards to this effort Probyn said he was "preventing mass hysteria." Probyn had the distinction of leaving Sierra Leone measurably popular among the colony's African majority. When he was replaced by
Edward Merewether, many Africans who worked for the British government in Sierra Leone petitioned that they "wanted Probyn back."
Caribbean Probyn then returned to the Caribbean, where he was first Governor of Barbados (1911-1918) and then of Jamaica (1918-1924). During his tenure as governor of Jamaica, women were granted suffrage. However, Probyn mandated that this be subject to "safe and rigid qualifications", meaning that the majority of black Jamaican women were still effectively denied the right to vote. On his retirement from the colonial service he returned to England, where he served as Chairman of the
Royal Victoria Hospital, Folkestone. ==Personal life==