Knox Helm
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Sir Alexander Knox HelmGBEKCMG(23 March 1893 – 7 March 1964) was a British diplomat who served as ambassador toTurkeyand was the lastGovernor-Generalof theSudan.
Early years
[edit]Born to W. H. Helm ofDumfries,Alexander Knox Helm was educated atDumfries AcademyandKing's College, Cambridge.
Career
[edit]In 1912, he passed the examination for what was then called second division clerkships and was appointed to theForeign Office.He served as a member of the East Registry. A keen volunteer whenWorld War Ibroke out, he was allowed by the Foreign Office to join his field artillery unit, being promoted second lieutenant in 1917 and serving in that capacity inPalestine.As a clerk, he performed only routine duties but distinguished himself through his diligence and retentive memory.
When the war ended, he was selected under the special recruitment scheme for filling vacancies caused by the war and appointed to theLevant Consular Service.After a short period of training in Oriental languages atKing's College, Cambridge,he went as Vice-Consul toThessaloniki,and soon after became thirdDragomanatConstantinople.When the Turkish capital moved toAnkaraand the office of Dragoman was abolished, Helm went there as Second Secretary. He served there as Consul, and in 1930 was transferred to the Foreign Office, working in the Eastern Department.
In 1937 he was sent as Consul toAddis Ababa,and at the outbreak ofWorld War IIwas moved to the British Embassy atWashington, D.C.,where he handled the various complicated problems connected with the supply of petroleum to the United Kingdom. In 1942 he went back to Ankara (at that moment a key post) as Counsellor.
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In 1946 he was chosen to go as British representative toHungaryand when normal diplomatic relations were restored in 1947 he was made Minister there.[1]In 1949 he was appointed the first British Chargé d'Affaires (later Minister) toTel Aviv[2]in the newly independent State ofIsrael,where he spent two happy and fruitful years; in 1951 he became Ambassador to Turkey.[3]He left there in 1954, having reached retirement age, but went for a brief period toKhartoumin 1955,[4]being the last Governor-General there.
Helm was a man of strong character and great determination. A tenacious and forceful negotiator, he had great powers of persuasion and a remarkable sense of timing – valuable gifts which were supplemented with a sense of humor and of proportion and charm which was genuine: few people can ever have said 'No' in a more pleasant way. He was an exacting chief but popular with his staff, who always knew that he could do any of their jobs better than they could themselves. Moreover, he was always ready to listen to their advice, but equally, he invariably made up his own mind.
He retained to the end the accent and intonation of theDumfriesshirefarming stock from which he came and his love for and understanding of the things of the soil often stood him in good stead in posts where agricultural problems bulked large in the economy of the country.
— The Times
Spouses
[edit]His first wife, Grace Little, died in 1925. His second, Isabel Marsh, whom he married in 1931, survived him after he died at sea in 1964.
Publications
[edit]- The Middle East of to-day and its problems(Ramsay Muir memorial lecture delivered at Cambridge on 5 August 1956), Ramsay Muir Educational Trust, Purley, 1956
References
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- ^The London Gazette, 20 February 1948
- ^The London Gazette, 30 August 1949
- ^The London Gazette, 22 January 1952
- ^New Governor of Sudan – Sir Knox Helm,The Glasgow Herald,31 December 1954
- HELM, Sir (Alexander) Knox,Who Was Who,A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2012, accessed 11 April 2013
- Sir Knox Helm: Brilliant Career In Diplomacy(obituary),The Times,London, 10 March 1964, page 16
- Sir Knox Helm: A friend writes...,The Times,London, 16 March 1964, page 12
- 1893 births
- 1964 deaths
- Royal Artillery officers
- British Army personnel of World War I
- Governors-General of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan
- Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire
- Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George
- People who died at sea
- Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Turkey
- People from Dumfries
- People educated at Dumfries Academy
- Alumni of King's College, Cambridge
- Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Hungary
- Members of HM Diplomatic Service
- 20th-century British diplomats