Egor Egorovich Staal

Caricature of Staal in Vanity Fair, 5 December 1885.

Baron Egor Egorovich Staal[1] (anglicised as Georges de Staal,[2] and francised as Georges Frédéric Charles de Staal;[3] March 1822 – 22 February 1907) was a Russian diplomat, who served as ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1884 to 1902.

Early life and family

Staal was born in March 1822 at Reval,[3] Estonia, the son of a land-owner. He was educated privately and then at the University of Moscow.[4] After the Crimean War, he married a daughter of Prince Michael Gortschakoff.[4]

Diplomatic service

Staal entered the Russian diplomatic service at the age of 23, when he joined the Asiatic Department. He was posted to Constantinople and was attached to Prince Michael Gortschakoff during the Crimean War.[4]

After the war, he was Consul-General at Budapest until 1859, when he transferred to Athens. In 1864, he became Conseiller d'Ambassade to Constantinople. In the 1870s and early 1880s, he was Minister at several German states, including Wuerttemberg, before being appointed Ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1884. He declined an offer to be Foreign Minister for Russia in 1896, owing to poor health; he submitted his letters of recall as Ambassador in 1902.[2][4] On his retirement, Edward VII appointed him an honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order.[5] He died in Paris on 22 February 1907.[4][6]

At his death, the correspondent at The Times wrote "it may be said that he had a very distinguished but uneventful career, for he gained and held with distinction one of the highest posts in the Russian diplomatic service without having ever taken a decisive part in any negotiations of first-rate importance."[4]

References

Citations

  1. ↑ "Staal’ Egor Egorovich", The Embassy of the Russian Federation to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
  2. 1 2 The London Gazette, 28 October 1902, issue 27488, p. 6803
  3. 1 2 Correspondance diplomatique de M. de Staal: 1884-1900, 1929, p. 1
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Death of Baron De Staal", The Times (London, England), 25 February 1907 (issue 38265), p. 8
  5. ↑ W. M. Shaw, Knights of England, volume i, 1906, p. 425
  6. ↑ National Probate Calendar, 1908, p. 248

Bibliography

Further reading

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