Horace James Seymour
SirHorace James SeymourGCMGCVO(26 February 1885 – 10 September 1978) was a Britishdiplomatwho served inWashington, D.C.,Tehran,the Hague,Rome,andChongqing.He was Principal Private Secretary to the British Foreign Secretary and Assistant Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office. His most senior appointment was asBritish Ambassador to Chinafrom 1942 to 1946.
Early life and family[edit]
The elder son of Hugh Francis Seymour and Rachel Blanche Lascelles, and the great-grandson of Col.Hugh Henry John Seymour,a grandson ofFrancis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford,and a descendant ofEdward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset,[1]Seymour was educated atEtonandTrinity College, Cambridge.[2]
Career[edit]
byCecil Beaton
Seymour entered theForeign OfficeandDiplomatic Servicein 1908. He wasSecond Secretaryat theBritish Embassyto the United States in 1919,First Secretaryin the Netherlands in 1923 and in Italy in 1925, then from 1932 to 1936Principal Private Secretaryto theForeign Secretary.He was next British Minister ('Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary') inTehran,from 1936 to 1939, AssistantUnder-Secretary of Stateat the Foreign Office, 1939 to 1942, and thenAmbassador to China,from 1942 to 1946. He retired in 1947.[2][1]
On 8 May 1944, Seymour presented the insignia of aKnight Commander of the BathtoHe Yingqin,Chinese Minister of War and Chief of the General Staff, in Chongqing.[3]
Between April 1947 and July 1947, Seymour was a member of the Franco-Siamese Boundary Commission sitting inWashington, D.C.,and in December 1947 he was appointed as chairman of the British Delegation to theBalkans Commission,based atSalonika,Greece.[1]
Marriage and children[edit]
In 1917, Horace James Seymour married Violet, a daughter of Thomas Edward Erskine, and they had three daughters, Jane (who died in infancy), Joan, and Virginia, and one son, Hugh Francis Seymour (1926—2010).[1]They lived atBratton House,nearWestburyin Wiltshire.[2]
Honours[edit]
- Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George,1927[2]
- Commander of the Royal Victorian Order,1936[2][1]
- Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, 1939[2]
- Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George, 1946[2]
References[edit]
- ^abcdeBurke's Peerage,volume 2 (2003), p. 1886, as cited by Darryl Lundy atSir Horace James Seymour,The Peerage, accessed 30 November 2008
- ^abcdefg'SEYMOUR, Sir Horace James', inWho Was Who,A & C Black, 1920–2007; online edition byOxford University Press,December 2007 (subscription required):SEYMOUR, Sir Horace James,accessed 14 Aug 2008
- ^General He Yingqin Receives Award,gettyimages.co.uk, accessed 29 December 2020
External links[edit]
- Sir Horace James Seymour,portrait atNational Portrait Gallery, London
- Photos of Sir Horace Seymour, in Joseph Needham Photographs- Wartime China, 1942-1946 in theNeedham Research Institute
- The Papers of Sir Horace Seymourheld atChurchill Archives Centre
| Authority control databases:National |
|---|
- 1885 births
- 1978 deaths
- Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
- Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to China
- Seymour family
- Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George
- People educated at Eton College
- Principal Private Secretaries to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
- Members of HM Diplomatic Service
- Commanders of the Royal Victorian Order
- 20th-century British diplomats