The Most Famous
DIPLOMATS from United Kingdom
This page contains a list of the greatest British Diplomats. The pantheon dataset contains 52 Diplomats, 5 of which were born in United Kingdom. This makes United Kingdom the birth place of the 4th most number of Diplomats behind Sweden and France.
Top 5
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary British Diplomats of all time. This list of famous British Diplomats is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784 - 1865)
With an HPI of 64.16, Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston is the most famous British Diplomat. His biography has been translated into 51 different languages on wikipedia.
Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865), known as Lord Palmerston, was a British statesman and politician who was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century. Palmerston dominated British foreign policy during the period 1830 to 1865, when Britain stood at the height of its imperial power. He held office almost continuously from 1807 until his death in 1865. He began his parliamentary career as a Tory, defected to the Whigs in 1830, and became the first prime minister from the newly formed Liberal Party in 1859. He was highly popular with the British public. David Brown argues that "an important part of Palmerston's appeal lay in his dynamism and vigour". Henry Temple succeeded to his father's Irish peerage (which did not entitle him to a seat in the House of Lords, leaving him eligible to sit in the House of Commons) as the 3rd Viscount Palmerston in 1802. He became a Tory MP in 1807. From 1809 to 1828 he served as Secretary at War, organising the finances of the army. He first attained Cabinet rank in 1827, when George Canning became prime minister, but like other Canningites, he resigned from office one year later. He served as Foreign Secretary 1830–1834, 1835–1841, and 1846–1851. In this office, Palmerston responded effectively to a series of conflicts in Europe. In 1852, the 4th Earl of Aberdeen formed a coalition government. The Peelites insisted that Lord John Russell be foreign secretary, forcing Palmerston to take the office of home secretary. As home secretary Palmerston enacted various social reforms, although he opposed electoral reform. When Aberdeen's coalition fell in 1855 over its handling of the Crimean War, Palmerston was the only man able to sustain a majority in Parliament, and he became prime minister. He had two periods in office, 1855–1858 and 1859–1865, before his death at the age of 80 years, a few months after victory in a general election in which he had obtained an increased majority. He remains the most recent British prime minister to die in office. Palmerston masterfully controlled public opinion by stimulating British nationalism. Although Queen Victoria and most of the political leadership distrusted him, he received and sustained the favour of the press and the populace, from whom he received the affectionate sobriquet "Pam". Palmerston's alleged weaknesses included mishandling of personal relations, and continual disagreements with the Queen over the royal role in determining foreign policy. Historians rank Palmerston as one of the greatest foreign secretaries, due to his handling of great crises, his commitment to the balance of power (which provided Britain with decisive agency in many conflicts), and his commitment to British interests. His policies in relation to India, China, Italy, Belgium, and Spain had extensive long-lasting beneficial consequences for Britain. This does not mean that Palmerston is completely without controversy. Palmerston's leadership during the Opium Wars was questioned and denounced by other prominent statesmen such as William Ewart Gladstone. The consequences of the conquest of India may have, at first, seemed to benefit both Britain (in the sense of access to goods and gold) and India (by adding infrastructure and a stable justice system), but this view has been challenged by more recent scholarship. The burdens placed on India in being ruled by a distant nation, and on the British government in dealing with the anxiety of generations of officials on how to properly govern, produced a chaotic administration with minimal coherence. The consequences of his policies toward France, the Ottoman Empire, and the United States proved more ephemeral.
2. Chaim Herzog (1918 - 1997)
With an HPI of 64.05, Chaim Herzog is the 2nd most famous British Diplomat. His biography has been translated into 43 different languages.
Major-General Chaim Herzog (Hebrew: חיים הרצוג; 17 September 1918 – 17 April 1997) was an Israeli politician, general, lawyer and author who served as the sixth President of Israel between 1983 and 1993. Born in Belfast and raised primarily in Dublin, the son of Ireland's Chief Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, he immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1935 and served in the Haganah Jewish paramilitary group during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt. He returned to Palestine after the war and, following the end of the British Mandate and Israel's Declaration of Independence in 1948, fought in the Battles of Latrun during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. He retired from the Israel Defence Forces in 1962 with the rank of major-general. After leaving the military, Herzog practised law. In 1972 he was a co-founder of Herzog, Fox & Ne'eman, which would become one of Israel's largest law firms. Between 1975 and 1978 he served as Israel's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, in which capacity he denounced UN General Assembly Resolution 3379—the "Zionism is Racism" resolution—and symbolically tore it up before the assembly. Herzog entered politics in the 1981 elections, winning a Knesset seat as a member of the Alignment. Two years later, in March 1983, he was elected to the largely ceremonial role of President. He served for two five-year terms before retiring in 1993. He died four years later and was buried on Mount Herzl, Jerusalem. His son Isaac Herzog is the incumbent President of Israel, the first father–son pair to serve as the nation's president, and led the Israeli Labor Party and the parliamentary Opposition in the Knesset between 2013 and 2017.
3. Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood (1864 - 1958)
With an HPI of 55.90, Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood is the 3rd most famous British Diplomat. His biography has been translated into 48 different languages.
Edgar Algernon Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, (14 September 1864 – 24 November 1958), known as Lord Robert Cecil from 1868 to 1923, was a British lawyer, politician and diplomat. He was one of the architects of the League of Nations and a defender of it, whose service to the organisation saw him awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1937.
4. Ernest Mason Satow (1843 - 1929)
With an HPI of 49.41, Ernest Mason Satow is the 4th most famous British Diplomat. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.
Sir Ernest Mason Satow, (30 June 1843 – 26 August 1929), was a British diplomat, scholar and Japanologist. He is better known in Japan than in Britain or the other countries in which he served, where he was known as Satō Ainosuke (Japanese: 佐藤 愛之助/薩道 愛之助). He was a key figure in late 19th-century Anglo-Japanese relations. Satow was influential in East Asia and Japan, particularly in Bakumatsu (1853–1867) and the Meiji-period (1868–1912). He also served in China after the Boxer Rebellion (1900–1906), in Siam, Uruguay and Morocco, and represented Britain at the Second Hague Peace Conference in 1907. In his retirement he wrote A Guide to Diplomatic Practice, now known as 'Satow's Guide to Diplomatic Practice' – this manual is widely used today, and has been updated several times by distinguished diplomats, notably Lord Gore-Booth. The sixth edition edited by Sir Ivor Roberts was published by Oxford University Press in 2009, and is over 700 pages long.
5. Seán Lester (1888 - 1959)
With an HPI of 46.54, Seán Lester is the 5th most famous British Diplomat. His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.
Seán Lester (28 September 1888 – 13 June 1959) was an Irish diplomat who was the last secretary-general of the League of Nations from 31 August 1940 to 18 April 1946.
Pantheon has 5 people classified as diplomats born between 1784 and 1918. Of these 5, none of them are still alive today. The most famous deceased diplomats include Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, Chaim Herzog, and Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood. As of April 2022, 1 new diplomats have been added to Pantheon including Ernest Mason Satow.
Deceased Diplomats
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Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston
1784 - 1865
HPI: 64.16
Chaim Herzog
1918 - 1997
HPI: 64.05
Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood
1864 - 1958
HPI: 55.90
Ernest Mason Satow
1843 - 1929
HPI: 49.41
Seán Lester
1888 - 1959
HPI: 46.54
Newly Added Diplomats (2022)
Go to all RankingsWhich Diplomats were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 5 most globally memorable Diplomats since 1700.
