George Clerk (diplomat)
Sir George Russell Clerk
Early life
The son of General Sir Godfrey Clerk (1835–1908), a
Clerk was educated at
.Career
Clerk was appointed a clerk in the
In the aftermath of the
His first appointment as an Ambassador came in 1926, when he was appointed as head of mission to
There were mixed views on Clerk's appointment to Paris in the troubled days of 1934, following the sudden retirement of his predecessor Lord Tyrrell on the grounds of ill health. Lord Vansittart described him as "one of those coming men who never quite arrive". The Liberal leader Sir Archibald Sinclair called Clerk "a man ripe for a mighty enterprise", while Lord Derby stated that it was not the first time Clerk had been sent to a country with difficult times ahead of it and he had always come through with flying colours.[11] However, Sir Warren Fisher, head of the Civil Service, wrote to Vansittart
"...the more I think of your idea of Sir George Clerk, the less I like it. I would agree at once that no one could possibly be such an ass as he looks; and I am prepared to exercise my imagination to the point of accepting him for a rating of B+. But this is by the standards of his own branch of our Service, for by those of the rest of our Service he would not be more than a B−."[11]
Fisher urged the appointment of Sir Eric Phipps, who in fact later succeeded Clerk in Paris, while after Clerk's appointment the disappointed Phipps noted that "G. C. will doubtless be a great success, but it must take many months of groping, since he has never served a day in Paris!"[11]
At the time of the
In August 1936, Clerk warned Yvon Delbos of the dangers of French intervention in the Spanish Civil War.[13]
In 1937, Clerk finally retired from the Diplomatic Service.[3]
Honours
- Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, 1908[3]
- Companion of the Order of the Bath, 1915[14]
- Knight of the Order of St Michael and St George, 1917[3]
- Member of the Privy Council, 1926[3]
- Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George, 1929[3]
- Grand Cross, Order of St Stanislaus, Russia[3]
- Grand Cross, Légion d'honneur[3]
- Grand Cross, Order of the White Lion of Bohemia, Czechoslovakia[3]
- Commander of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, Italy[3]
Private life
Clerk was a member of the
A historian of the British mission in Paris has described Clerk as "conventionally good-looking, monocled".[15]
References
- ^ 1919 - 1926 Sir George Clerk GCMG CB, Previous Ambassadors, Last updated at 10:05 (UK time) 3 Oct 2011, UK in Czech Republic
- ISBN 0-7136-2670-4
- ^ ISBN 0-7136-2598-8
- London Gazette, Issue 27297 of 22 March 1901, p. 2021online
- ^ "The King - the special Embassies". The Times. No. 36410. London. 23 March 1901. p. 12.
- ^ Gerald J. Protheroe, Searching for security in a new Europe: the diplomatic career of Sir George Russell Clerk (2006), p. 7 online
- ^ a b "Sir George Clerk and the struggle for British influence in central Europe, 1919-26".
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(help) - ^ London Gazette, Issue 34006 of 19 December 1933, p. 8219 online
- ^ Previous ambassadors at ukinfrance.fco.gov.uk
- ^ London Gazette, Issue 34049 of 11 May 1934, p. 3025 online
- ^ a b c Protheroe, op. cit., pp. 153-154 online
- ^ Protheroe, op. cit., p. 183 online
- ^ Anthony P. Adamthwaite, The Making of the Second World War (1989), p. 161 online
- ^ "No. 29024". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 December 1914. p. 1.
- Cynthia Gladwyn, chapter 'Sir George Clerk, 1934–1937', in her The Paris Embassy (1974), p. 212