assistant secretary civil servant
The member of an old Shropshire family, Sandford was the son of Sir Daniel Sandford by Cecilia Catherine Charnock, daughter of John Charnock. He was the grandson of the Right Reverend Daniel Sandford, Bishop of Edinburgh, and the brother of Sir Herbert Sandford, Executive Commissioner to the Melbourne Exhibition of 1880, and the Right Reverend Daniel Sandford, Bishop of Tasmania.
He was educated at the Glasgow High School, the Grange School at Sunderland, the University of Glasgow and as a Snell exhibitioner at Balliol College, Oxford, where he obtained a first class in Literae Humaniores.
He was Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Committee of Council on Education between 1870 and 1884, in which role he was instrumental in implementing the Elementary Education Acting of 1870. Sandford entered the Education office in 1848, where he was to remain except for short interludes until 1884. In 1862 he was organising secretary for the International Exhibition of that year and from 1868 to 1870 he was Assistant Under-Secretary at the Colonial Office.
In 1870 he was made Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Committee of Council on Education.
He played an important role in the implementation of the Elementary Education Acting of 1870 introduced by William Edward Forster. Sandford combined this role with that of secretary to the Scottish Education department and to the science and art department, offices which were later split between separate individuals.
In 1884 Sandford was made a charity commissioner under the London Parochial Charities Acting and in 1885 he was vice-chairman of the commissioners under the Redistribution of Seats Acting. From 1885 to 1887 he was Under-Secretary for Scotland.
In 1891 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Sandford, of Sandford in the County of Shropshire.
According to the Dictionary of National Biography the "..work he performed in these capacities was appreciated by statesmen of all political parties".
