Eric Phipps

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Sir Eric Clare Edmund Phipps PC, GCB, GCMG, GCVO (October 27, 1875–August 13, 1945), was a British diplomat.

Phipps was the son of Sir Constantine Edmund Henry Phipps, British Ambassador to Belgium, and Maria Jane Miller-Mundy. Henry Phipps, 1st Earl of Mulgrave, was his great-grandfather, and he was also a great-grandson of Lieutenant-General Sir Colin Campbell (politician), who was present at the Battle of Waterloo and of Rear-Admiral Sir John Hindmarsh, who was a Lieutenant on HMS Phoebe at the Battle of Trafalgar - making him probably the first person to be descended from officers who fought at both battles. He was educated at King's College, Cambridge. He then passed the competitive examination in 1899 and held a number of secretaryships to British ambassadors in Petrograd, Madrid and Paris. He was British Secretary to the Paris Peace Conference, 1919. He was also British ambassador to Berlin from 1933 to 1937 and then ambassador to Paris from 1937 until 1939. He held the Grand Cross of the Legion d'Honneur and was a commander of the Order of Leopold II of Belgium.

Phipps, in his despatches whilst ambassador to Berlin, warned the British Government about the character of Adolf Hitler's régime. On 31 January, 1934 Phipps wrote to the British Foreign Secretary, John Simon:

[Hitler's] policy is simple and straightforward. If his neighbours allow him, he will become strong by the simplest and most direct methods. There mere fact that he is making himself unpopular abroad will not deter him, for, as he said in a recent speech, it is better to be respected and feared than to be weak and liked. If he finds that he arouses no real opposition, the tempo of his advance will increase. On the other hand, if he is vigorously opposed, he is unlikely at this stage to risk a break.[1]

Phipps gave a further warning to Simon on 1 April, 1935:

Let us hope our pacifists at home may at length realise that the rapidly-growing monster of German militarism will not be placated by mere cooings, but will only be restrained from recourse to its ultima ratio by the knowledge that the Powers who desire peace are also strong enough to enforce it.[2]

.

During his first year in Berlin, Phipps managed to see Hitler only four times[3]. Phipps himself regarded Hitler as something of cipher, who was variously described in his dispatches back to London as more moderate then his followers or as possibly mad[4]. In May 1936, Phipps presented to Hitler the famous “questionnaire” largely written by his brother-in law, the Foreign Office’s Undersecretary, Robert Vansittart that asked point-blank if Germany intended "to respect the existing territorial and political status of Europe", and was willing to sign "genuine treaties"[5].Neither Hitler nor any other German leader ever responded to the “questionnaire”.

During his time as Ambassador in Paris, Phipps strongly identified himself with French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet, and most of his dispatches to London reflected Bonnet's influence[6]. On September 24, 1938 at the height of the great crisis over Czechoslovakia that was to culminate in the Munich Agreement, Phipps reported back to London "all that is best in France is against war, almost at any price" being opposed only by a a "small, but noisy and corrupt, war group"[7].

Phipps married, firstly, Yvonne de Louvencourt, in 1907. After her death in 1909 he married, secondly, Frances Ward, daughter of Herbert Ward, in 1911. He died in August 1945, aged 69. He had six children, all by his second wife:

  1. Lieutenant-Colonel Mervyn Phipps (1912-1983),
  2. Lieutenant (RN) Alan Phipps, (born 1915, killed in action on Leros, 1943), whose son is Brigadier Jeremy Phipps,
  3. Mary Phipps (1923-), married to Bonar Sykes, son of Sir Frederick Sykes and his wife, a daughter of a former British Prime Minister Andrew Bonar Law,
  4. Margaret Phipps (1925-), married to George Cary, son of the Irish novelist Joyce Cary,
  5. John-Francis Phipps (1933-) and
  6. William Phipps (1936-), who married Henrietta Frances Lamb (b. 1931), elder daughter of the painter Henry Lamb and his wife Lady (Margaret) Pansy Lamb (née Pakenham), sister of the 6th and 7th Earls of Longford.[8]
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
Sir Horace Rumbold		 British Ambassador to Germany
1933–1937		 Succeeded by
Sir Nevile Henderson
Preceded by
George Clerk		 British Ambassador to France
1937–1939		 Succeeded by
Ronald Campbell

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Correlli Barnett, The Collapse of British Power (Pan, 2002), page 387.
  2. ^ Correlli Barnett, The Collapse of British Power (Pan, 2002), page 388.
  3. ^ Doerr, Paul British Foreign Policy 1919-1939, Manchester University Press: Manchester, United Kingdom, 1998 page 158
  4. ^ Medlicott, W.N. Britain and Germany: The Search For Agreement 1930-1937, Athlone Press: London, United Kingdom, 1969. pages 7-8.
  5. ^ Medlicott, W.N. Britain and Germany: The Search For Agreement 1930-1937, Athlone Press: London, United Kingdom, 1969 page 26
  6. ^ Adamthwaite, Anthony France and the Coming of the Second World War 1936-1939, London: Frank Cass, 1977 page 177
  7. ^ Adamthwaite, Anthony France and the Coming of the Second World War 1936-1939, London: Frank Cass, 1977 page 177
  8. ^ Photographical portrait of Henrietta Phipps, nee Lamb with her mother and sister. Her mother Lady Pansy Lamb (1904-1999) was a sister of the writer and Labour peer Lord Longford, and aunt of Antonia Fraser.[1]

[edit] References

  • Adamthwaite, Anthony France and the Coming of the Second World War 1936-1939, London: Frank Cass, 1977, ISBN 0 7146 3035 7.
  • Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.
  • Herman, John The Paris Embassy of Sir Eric Phipps, Sussex Academic Press, 1998

[edit] External Link

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