Esme William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Penrith, GCB, GCMG, CVO (15 September 1863 – 1 August 1939) was a British diplomat. He served as British Ambassador to the United States between 1924 and 1930.
Born at Greystoke Castle, near Penrith, Cumberland, Howard was the youngest son of Henry Howard, son of Lord Henry Howard-Molyneux-Howard, younger brother of Bernard Howard, 12th Duke of Norfolk. His mother was Charlotte Caroline Georgina, daughter of Henry Lawes Long and Catherine Walpole (daughter of Horatio Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford), while Henry Howard and Sir Stafford Howard were his elder brothers. He was educated at Harrow. In 1885, he passed the Diplomatic Service examination, and was assistant private secretary to the Earl of Carnarvon as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland before being attached to the British Embassy in Rome. In 1888, he arrived in Berlin as the embassy's third secretary, and after retiring from the Diplomatic Service four years later, he was made assistant private secretary to the Earl of Kimberley, the Foreign Secretary at the time.
Having fought in the Second Boer War with the Imperial Yeomanry, Howard became Consul General for Crete in 1903, and three years later was sent to Washington as a counsellor at the embassy there. Esme Howard was married to Isabella Giovanna Teresa Gioachina Giustiniani-Bandini of Venice. In 1908, he was appointed in the same role to Vienna, and that same year became Consul General at Budapest. Three years later, Howard was made Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Swiss Confederation,[1] and in 1913 he was transferred to Stockholm, where he spent the whole of the First World War. In 1916, having already been appointed CMG and CVO ten years earlier, he was knighted as KCMG, becoming KCB three years later.
In 1919, Sir Esme Howard was attached to the British delegation during the Paris Peace Conference, also being made British Civil Delegate on the International Commission to Poland. That same year, he was sent to Madrid as ambassador there, and in 1924 returned to Washington in the same role. Appointed GCMG and GCB in 1923 and 1928 respectively, he was created, on his retirement in 1930, Baron Howard of Penrith, of Gowbarrow in the historic county of Cumberland. He died nine years later aged 75. His sons were Francis Philip Howard, 2nd Baron Howard of Penrith, and Henry Anthony Camillo Howard.
Autobiography = Theatre of Life 1863-1905 = published Hodder and Stoughton 1935
| Diplomatic posts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Henry Bax-Ironside |
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Swiss Confederation 1911–1913 |
Succeeded by Evelyn Duff |
| Preceded by Sir Auckland Geddes |
British Ambassador to the United States 1924–1930 |
Succeeded by Sir Ronald Lindsay |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Baron Howard of Penrith 1930–1939 |
Succeeded by Francis Philip Howard |