Sir Francis Walter de Winton was born on June 21, 1835, in Pitsford, Northamptonshire, England.

He was a British Army officer and colonial administrator. He was educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1854. He served in the Crimean War and was present at the Siege of Sevastopol. For his service, he received the Légion d'Honneur (5th class). He was promoted to captain in 1861 and served in British North America and Gibraltar before working as a military attaché in Constantinople (1877-1878). From 1878 to 1883, he was secretary to the Marquess of Lorne, the Governor-General of Canada. De Winton was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in 1880 and brevet-colonel in 1884. He was made a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George in 1882 and a Knight in 1884. He held administrative appointments in several African colonies, e.g., Congo Free State and Swaziland (1889). He was made a Commander of the Order of Leopold by the Belgian government and a Companion of the Order of the Bath. In 1890, de Winton retired from the army with the honorary rank of major-general. He was appointed governor of the Imperial British East Africa Company's possessions but resigned in 1891. In 1892, he became Controller and Treasurer in the household of Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence, and Avondale and later he served in the household of the Duke and Duchess of York. He was invested as a Knight Grand Cross in 1893.

In 1864, he married Lady Evelyn Rawson (1846–1907). He died on December 16, 1901, in Llanstephan, Llyswen, Wales.