John Tilley (diplomat)

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Sir John Tilley
PC
British Ambassador to Japan
In office
1926–1931
MonarchGeorge V
Prime MinisterStanley Baldwin
Ramsay MacDonald
Preceded bySir Charles Eliot
Succeeded bySir Francis Oswald Lindley
British Ambassador to Brazil
In office
1921–1925
MonarchGeorge V
Prime MinisterDavid Lloyd George
Bonar Law
Stanley Baldwin
Ramsay MacDonald
Preceded bySir Ralph Paget
Succeeded bySir Beilby Alston
Personal details
BornJanuary 1869
Died5 April 1952
NationalityBritish
Spouse
Edith Honoria Montgomery-Cuninghame
​
​
(m. 1901)​
Parent
Alma materKing's College, Cambridge (BA, MA)

Sir John Anthony Cecil Tilley

Ambassador to Japan from 1926 to 1931.[3]

Early life

Born on 21

Sir John Tilley, Secretary to the General Post Office,[1] by his third marriage, to Susannah Anderson Montgomerie.[5] She was the grand daughter of Alexander Montgomerie; daughter of William Eglinton Montgomerie of Annick Lodge and Greenville, Ayrshire[7] by his marriage to Susanna Fraser Anderson[8] and great niece of Hugh Montgomerie, 12th Earl of Eglinton.[6] Tilley was the half brother of Arthur Augustus Tilley.[6][9] and godson of Anthony Trollope.[6]

Before being awarded a scholarship to

Foreign Office entrance examination[6]

On 7 September 1901 Tilley married Edith Honoria Montgomery-Cuninghame,[6] eldest child of Sir William Montgomery-Cuninghame, 9th Baronet, by his marriage to Elizabeth Hartopp, daughter of Edward Bourchier Hartopp.[1][10]

Career

In 1893, Tilley took the

Venezuela Crisis of 1895) between British Guiana and Venezuela, also based in Paris.[6] At the end of 1898, Tilley returned to the Foreign Office to work in the Consular Department.[6]

In 1902, he became Secretary to the Committee on Consular Service,[6] and in 1903 Secretary to the Committee of Imperial Defence.[6] This was a temporary appointment and ended in June 1904 when George Clarke, 1st Baron Sydenham of Combe was appointed permanently to the position.[6] On 3 August 1906 he was appointed Acting First Secretary in His Majesty's Diplomatic Service

Nicholas Roderick O'Conor for whom Tilley felt great affection and admiration.[6]

After promotion early in 1909, he was made Head of the African Department.

School of Oriental Studies.[6]

1916 saw the formation of a committee to consider reform of the Diplomatic Service. As Chief Clerk, Tilley was appointed to this committee which resulted in the merger of the Diplomatic and Foreign Office Services and for the first time, allowances were paid to men serving abroad.

British ambassador to Brazil.[14]

After a long leave, his final posting, from 1926 to 1931, was as

Emperor Taisho) when he received the Grand Cordon of the Rising Sun and later, at the enthronement of the new Emperor Hirohito, he was appointed Special Ambassador and the Paulownia Leaves were added to the Grand Cordon of the Rising Sun.[16]

Tilley's final ceremonial duty before leaving Japan was to lay the foundation stone of Christ Church, Yokohama, built to replace the original church destroyed in an earthquake.[6] Tilley and his family left Japan on 18 October 1930 taking a long journey via a number of countries home, into retirement[6]

In retirement, he lived at

Justice of the Peace for the county.[12]

Selected works

  • The Foreign Office (1933), 3 editions
  • London to Tokyo (1942), 7 editions, the last in 1973

Honours

See also

  • List of Ambassadors from the United Kingdom to Japan
  • Anglo-Japanese relations

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Peerage: Rt. Hon. Sir John Anthony Cecil Tilley, ID#326658
  2. ^ Ian Nish. (2004). British Envoys in Japan 1859-1972, pp. 123-131.
  3. Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary
    , which is a head of mission ranking just below Ambassador.
  4. ^ a b "Tilley, John Anthony Cecil (TLY887JA)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  5. ^ a b Birth Certificate of John Tilley, 1859
  6. ^
    passim
  7. ^ "The Times Archive" in online database (subscription required), accessed 16 May 2011
  8. ^ "Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmoreland Antiquarian & Archeological Society" (Cumberland and Westmoreland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, 2007), p. 189
  9. ^ Birth Certificates of Arthur Augustus Tilley (1851) and John Tilley (1859)
  10. ^ a b c d e f Dewar, Peter Beauclerk. (2001). Burke’s Landed Gentry of Great Britain, p. 258., p. 258, at Google Books
  11. ^ "Issue number: 27941". London Gazette. 17 August 1906. Retrieved 10 May 2011.
  12. ^
    ISBN 0-7136-2598-8
  13. ^ "Issue number: 32173". London Gazette. 24 December 1920. Retrieved 10 May 2011.
  14. ^ a b Kurita, Shunjiro. (1930). Who's Who in Japan, Vol. 13, p. 40.
  15. ^ Hoare, James. (1999). Embassies in the East: the Story of the British Embassies in Japan, China, and Korea from 1859 to the Present, p. 213., p. 213, at Google Books
  16. ^ a b ’'The Times (London, England)’’, Monday, 7 April 1952, Issue 52280, p.8. The Times Archive Database, Gale (subscription required), accessed 28 August 2019
  17. ^ "Issue number: 33518". London Gazette. 19 July 1929. Retrieved 15 May 2011.

References

External links

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by British Ambassador to Brazil
1921–1925 		Succeeded by
Preceded by British Ambassador to Japan
1926–1931 		Succeeded by
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