DIPLOMATS from United Kingdom

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. Chaim Herzog (1918 - 1997)

With an HPI of 67.04, Chaim Herzog is the most famous British Diplomat.  His biography has been translated into 47 different languages on wikipedia.

Chaim Herzog (Hebrew: חיים הרצוג‎; 17 September 1918 – 17 April 1997) was an Israeli politician, military officer, 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, who between 2013 and 2017 led the Israeli Labor Party and was the parliamentary Opposition in the Knesset, is the incumbent President of Israel. The pair are the first father and son to have served as the nation's president.

2. Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784 - 1865)

With an HPI of 63.31, Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston is the 2nd most famous British Diplomat.  His biography has been translated into 54 different languages.

Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865), known as Lord Palmerston, was a British statesman and politician who was prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1855 to 1858 and from 1859 to 1865. A member of the Liberal Party, Palmerston was the first Liberal Prime Minister, and he dominated British foreign policy from 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". 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 was Secretary at War, organising the finances of the army. He first attained Cabinet rank in 1827, when George Canning became prime minister, but he resigned from office one year later. He was 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. However, 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 have been reconsidered by more recent scholarship weighing the burdens placed on India in colonial rule and British uncertainty on proper governance. The consequences of his policies towards France, the Ottoman Empire, and the United States proved more ephemeral.

3. Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood (1864 - 1958)

With an HPI of 58.21, Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood is the 3rd most famous British Diplomat.  His biography has been translated into 52 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 51.01, 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, where he was known as Satō Ainosuke (Japanese: 佐藤 愛之助/薩道 愛之助), than in Britain or the other countries in which he served as a diplomat. He was a key figure in late 19th-century Anglo-Japanese relations. Satow was influential in East Asia and Japan, particularly in the Bakumatsu (1853–1867) and Meiji (1868–1912) eras. 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 still 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 46.97, 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.