Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen

Anthony Eden and Knatchbull-Hugessen

Sir Hughe Montgomery Knatchbull-Hugessen KCMG (26 March 1886 – 21 March 1971^[1]) was a British diplomat, civil servant and author.

Background and education

He was the second son of Reverend Reginald Bridges Knatchbull-Hugessen, son of Sir Edward Knatchbull, 9th Baronet, and his second wife Rachel Mary, daughter of Admiral Sir Alexander Montgomery, 3rd Baronet.^[2] Knatchbull-Hugessen was educated at Eton College and then at Balliol College, Oxford, where he befriended Anthony Eden and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1907.^[3] A year later, he joined the Foreign Office.^[4]

Career

He soon obtained the chance of the paid post of an attaché and in October 1909 he went to Constantinople.^[3] Returned to England, he served in the contraband department during the First World War and after its end in 1918, when the Foreign Service and the Diplomatic Service merged, Knatchbull-Hugessen became eligible for other postings.^[3] Promoted to first secretary, he was attached to the British Delegation at the Versailles Conference in January 1919,^[4] for which he was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 1920 New Year Honours.^[5]

After a stop in The Hague, followed by Paris, he became counsellor at the country's embassy in Brussel in 1926, an office he held until 1930.^[1] In 1931 Knatchbull-Hugessen was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Republics of Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia until 1934; he was stationed at Riga, Latvia.^[6] Then he transferred to Tehran as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Persia.^[4] He was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in the 1936 New Year Honours^[7] and was sent to China as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.^[8] The following year, his car was machine-gunned by a Japanese fighter aircraft, and he was hit.^[9] First hospitalised in Shanghai and then invalided home to Britain, he narrowly escaped paralysis.^[3]

Having taken over a year to recover from his wound, Knatchbull-Hugessen was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Turkish Republic in 1939.^[10] During his time in Ankara, his Albanian valet Elyesa Bazna, known as Cicero regularly opened his mail and safe, passing any useful information on to German High Command; one of the more damaging spying incidents of World War II.^[11] In 1944, Knatchbull-Hugessen was nominated Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Belgium and additionally Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Luxembourg, retiring three years later.^[12]

Family

On 16 July 1912, he married Mary Gilmour (who died in 1978), daughter of Brigadier-General Sir Robert Gilmour, 1st Baronet and had by her three children, one son and two daughters.^[13]

Works

• Diplomat in Peace and War (1949)
• Kentish Family (1960)

Footnotes

1. "Janus - The Papers of Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen". Retrieved 26 October 2009.
2. Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles (1929). Armorial Families. vol. II. London: Hurst & Blackett. p. 1110.
3. Wires, Richard (1999). The Cicero spy affair: German access to British secrets in World War II. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 18–19. ISBN 0-275-96456-6.
4. Who Is Who 1963. London: Adam & Charles Black. 1963. p. 1745.
5. The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 31712. p. 5. 30 December 1919. Retrieved 1 September 2008.
6. The London Gazette: no. 33724. p. 3758. 9 June 1931. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
7. The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 34238. p. 6. 31 December 1935. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
8. The London Gazette: no. 34331. p. 6536. 13 October 1936. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
9. Lee, Bradford A. (1973). Britain and the Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1939. Stanford: Stanford University Press. pp. 40–41. ISBN 0-8047-0799-5.
10. The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 34607. p. 1763. 14 March 1939. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
11. Sulzberger, Cyrus Leo (1985). World War II. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 142. ISBN 0-8281-0331-3.
12. The London Gazette: no. 36811. p. 5393. 24 November 1944. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
13. "ThePeerage - Sir Hughe Montgomery Knatchbull-Hugessen". Retrieved 4 December 2006.

References

• Obituary, The Times, 23 March 1971