Adair, Sir Robert (1763–1855), politician and diplomatist, was the son of Robert Adair, sergeant-surgeon to George III, and Lady Caroline Keppel. He was born on 24 May 1763, and was sent to Westminster School in 1773, and thence to the University of Göttingen...
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W. P. Courtney
revised by H. C. G. Matthew
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Alcock, Sir (John) Rutherford (1809–1897), diplomatist, was born in Ealing on 17 May 1809, the son of Thomas Alcock (1784–1833), a doctor practising at Ealing, and his wife, Mary. He was educated at a school at Hexham, Northumberland, and as a medical student at ...
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Douglas M. Peers
Amherst, William Pitt, first Earl Amherst of Arracan (1773–1857), diplomatist and governor-general of Bengal, was born on 14 January 1773 in Bath, the first of three children of Lieutenant-General William Amherst (1732–1781), aide-de-camp to the king, governor of St John's, Newfoundland, and adjutant-general of the army, and his wife, ...
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Anstee, Dame Margaret Joan (1926–2016), diplomatist and international civil servant, was born on 25 June 1926 at 2 Albert Villas, Writtle, Essex, the only child of Edward Curtis Anstee (1894–1971), printer, and his wife, Annie Adaliza, née Mills (1898–1972), who had worked as a domestic servant. Her parents had married in ...
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Neville Thompson
Arbuthnot, Charles (1767–1850), diplomatist and politician, was born on 14 March 1767, the third son of John Arbuthnot (1729–1797), merchant, of Ravensbury near Mitcham, Surrey, and his third wife, Anne (d. 1782), daughter of Richard Stone, a London banker. The father's enterprise failed early in his son's life but in 1782 he was appointed inspector-general of the ...
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Ashby, Dame Margery Irene Corbett (1882–1981), feminist and internationalist, was born on 19 April 1882 in London, the eldest of three children (two girls and a boy) of Charles Henry Joseph Corbett, businessman and landowner of Woodgate, Danehill, Sussex, and his wife, Marie...
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Aston, William George (1841–1911), diplomatist and Japanese and Korean scholar, was born on 9 April 1841 near Londonderry, one of the five children of George Robert Aston, minister of the Unitarian Church of Ireland and schoolmaster. He was educated at Saintfield national school...
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Baldwin, George (1744–1826), diplomatist and writer, son of William Baldwin, hop merchant, was born, in the Borough, near London, in May 1744 according to his own account, though others give 1743 as the date. In 1760 he went to Cyprus (where his brother was consul) and in 1763 to ...
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Baring, Evelyn, first earl of Cromer (1841–1917), diplomatist and proconsul, was born on 26 February 1841 at Cromer Hall, Norfolk, the ninth son of Henry Baring (1776–1848), banker, and his second wife, Cecilia Anne, née Windham (d. 1874). He was a grandson of ...
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Liora Lukitz
Bell, Gertrude Margaret Lowthian (1868–1926), traveller, archaeologist, and diplomatist, was born at Washington Hall, co. Durham, on 14 July 1868, the elder child and only daughter of (Thomas) Hugh Bell (1844–1931), an ironmaster, who succeeded his father as second baronet in 1904, and his first wife, ...
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Hugh Dunthorne and David Onnekink
Bentinck, Hans Willem [William], first earl of Portland (1649–1709), diplomat and politician, was born on 20 July 1649 ns at Diepenheim in the eastern Netherlands, the fifth of nine children of Berent Bentinck (1597–1668), lord of Diepenheim and drost (sheriff) of Deventer, and his wife, ...
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Robert Cecil
revised
Bentinck, Victor Frederick William Cavendish- [known as Bill Bentinck], ninth duke of Portland (1897–1990), diplomatist and businessman, was born on 18 June 1897 at 16 Mansfield Street, London. He was the younger son and third of the four children of (William George) Frederick Cavendish-Bentinck (1856–1948)...
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Douglas M. Peers
Bentinck, Lord William Henry Cavendish- [known as Lord William Bentinck] (1774–1839), army officer, diplomatist, and governor-general of India, was born on 14 September 1774 at Burlington House in London, the second son of William Henry Cavendish Cavendish-Bentinck, third duke of Portland (1738–1809)...
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Bertie, Francis Leveson, first Viscount Bertie of Thame (1844–1919), diplomatist, was born on 17 August 1844 at 48 Charles Street, Mayfair, the second son of Montagu Bertie, sixth earl of Abingdon (1808–1884), and his wife, Elizabeth Lavinia (d. 1858), only daughter of ...
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Richard Davenport-Hines
Blackwood, Frederick Temple Hamilton-Temple-, first marquess of Dufferin and Ava (1826–1902), diplomatist, was born on 21 June 1826, in via Maggio, Florence, Italy, the only child of Price Blackwood (1794–1841), formerly captain in the Royal Navy, afterwards fourth Baron Dufferin and Claneboye in the Irish peerage, and his wife, ...
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W. H. Clennell
Bodley, Sir Thomas (1545–1613), scholar, diplomat, and founder of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, was born on 2 March 1545 in a house on the corner of High Street and Gandy Street, Exeter, the eldest son of John Bodley (c. 1520–1591), religious radical and publisher, of ...
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Andrew C. Thompson
Bothmer, Hans Kaspar [Johann] von, Count Bothmer in the nobility of the Holy Roman empire (1656–1732), courtier and diplomat, was born on 10 April 1656 ns in Lauenbrück, in the Celle portion of the duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, northern Germany, the eldest son of ...
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Bourbon, Armand de, marquis de Miremont (1655–1732), army officer and diplomat, was born on 12 July 1655 at the château of Lacaze in Languedoc, southern France, the second of the five children of Louis de Bourbon, second marquis de Malauze (1608–1667), and his second wife, ...
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James P. Carley
Bourchier, John, second Baron Berners (c. 1467–1533), soldier, diplomat, and translator, was the son of Sir Humphrey Bourchier (d. 1471) and Elizabeth (d. 1497), daughter and sole heir of Frederick Tilney of Boston, Lincolnshire. His father, a Yorkist, was killed at the battle of ...
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M. Unkovskaya
Bowes, Sir Jerome (d. 1616), diplomat and glass maker, was the son of Sir John Bowes, landowner, of Elford, Staffordshire, and his wife, Anne, daughter of Richard Huddleston of Lancashire. For a man of his prominence and considerable notoriety, Bowes is rather an elusive person. He had a sister, ...
