William Erskine (diplomat)

Sir William Augustus Forbes Erskine GCMG MVO PC (30 October 1871 – 17 July 1952) was the first British ambassador to the Republic of Poland.

Career

William Erskine, second son of Walter Erskine, 11th Earl of Mar, was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford. He joined the Foreign Office in 1894[1] and served at Buenos Aires, Teheran, Rome and Stockholm where he was chargé d'affaires in 1913. He was posted to Athens with the rank of Counsellor of Embassy 1913–17[2] where he was British delegate to the international financial commission which had been established following the Greco-Turkish War (1897) to oversee the public finances of Greece. He was Counsellor at Rome 1917–19, Minister to Cuba 1919–21[3] (and concurrently to Haiti and the Dominican Republic[4]), Minister to Bulgaria 1921–27,[5] and Minister to Poland 1928–29,[6] continuing there as Ambassador 1929–34[7] after the post was raised from legation to embassy. He was the first ambassador to Poland since the time of King Jan III Sobieski in the seventeenth century.

Honours

Erskine was appointed MVO in 1906 after attending the then Prince of Wales (later King George V) to Madrid for the marriage of King Alfonso XIII to Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg.[8] He was knighted KCMG in 1926[9] and raised to GCMG in 1930[10] when he was also made a member of the Privy Council.[11]

References

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
Stephen Leech
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Cuba
1928–1929
Succeeded by
Godfrey Haggard
Preceded by
Sir Arthur Peel
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to His Majesty the King of the Bulgarians
1921–1927
Succeeded by
Rowland Sperling
Preceded by
William Max-Müller
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Poland
1928–1929
Succeeded by
himself, as Ambassador
Preceded by
himself, as Minister
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Poland
1929–1934
Succeeded by
Sir Howard Kennard
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