Henry Howard (diplomat)

Sir Henry Howard, about 1914

Howard, seated right, with other British attaché in Washington, D.C. (c. 1865.)

Sir Henry Howard GCMG KCB (11 August 1843 – 4 May 1921) was a British diplomat who was the first formal British envoy to the Vatican for over 300 years.

Biography

Henry Howard was the elder son of Sir Henry Francis Howard, also a British diplomat and ambassador, and through him was a descendant of Lord William Howard, younger son of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk.^[1] As a member of the Howard family he was a Roman Catholic and was educated at Downside School.^[2]

He joined the Diplomatic Service as an attaché to the Legation in Washington, D.C. in 1865. He was promoted to Third Secretary in 1869^[3] and to Second Secretary in 1873.^[4] While in Washington he was Her Majesty's Agent for British claims under the Treaty of Washington (1871).^[5] For this service he was appointed CB in 1874^[6] after leaving Washington. He then served in The Hague, and in early 1876 was in London as secretary to a Royal Commission on Fugitive Slaves.^[7] After this he was posted back to Washington, then to Guatemala in 1883.

In 1885 Howard was promoted again to be Secretary to the legation at Athens,^[8] and subsequently held the same post at the legations at Copenhagen,^[9] Peking^[10] and St Petersburg.^[11] In 1894 he was appointed Secretary to the embassy at Paris.^[12] In 1896 he was appointed minister to the Netherlands and also to Luxembourg.^[13] While at The Hague, Howard was knighted KCMG in January 1899^[14] and a few months later he was named as British co-representative (with Sir Julian Pauncefote) at the Hague Convention of 1899.^[15] Sir Henry was given the additional honour of KCB in the King's Birthday Honours of 1907.^[16] In October 1908 he left The Hague after presenting his letters of recall to Queen Wilhelmina, who conferred on him the Order of Orange-Nassau.^[17] Some of his furniture and effects were shipped on the Great Eastern Railway Company's ship Yarmouth which sank with all hands on its way from Hook of Holland to Harwich on 27 October 1908.^[18]

In December 1914, after the outbreak of the First World War, Sir Henry was appointed "His Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary on a Special Mission to His Holiness the Pope"^[19] (Benedict XV, who had been elected that September). Sir Henry was accompanied by a member of Foreign Office staff to be Secretary of the mission.^[2] This appointment re-established full diplomatic relations with the Holy See for the first time since 1558^[20] (although the United Kingdom had been intermittently represented at the Vatican during the 19th century by diplomats accredited to Italian states). Sir Henry's instructions, in a letter to him from the Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, were published in a parliamentary paper (Cd.7736):

You will ... in presenting your letters of credence to his Holiness, and offering him the cordial congratulations of his Majesty the King on the occasion of his election, intimate to him that his Majesty's Government are anxious to put themselves into direct communication with him for the purpose of demonstrating the motives which have governed their attitude since the first moment that the normal relations between the Great Powers of Europe began to be disturbed and of establishing that his Majesty's Government used every effort to maintain the peace of Europe which his Holiness' venerated predecessor had so much at heart.^[21]

In August 1916 Sir Henry retired from the Diplomatic Service and was appointed GCMG "in recognition of his long and eminent services, and on the occasion of his retirement."^[22] He died in Rome on 4 May 1921; The Times did not run an obituary but published the following item:

THE LATE SIR H. HOWARD
A Roman reader of The Times sends us, under date May 4, the following tribute to the late Sir Henry Howard:–
With the passing of Sir Henry Howard to-night the world is poorer by the loss of one of the most beloved Englishmen, whose personality was the best propaganda for his country, and who will be truly and deeply mourned by people in many lands. One who knew and loved him would beg a little space to tell all that he did for England in Rome when he came here as Minister to the Vatican in 1914. In the world of "Black" Rome there were few representatives of the Allies; there were many Germans and Austrians, who had left no stone unturned for many years and were reaping their reward. Into an atmosphere sometimes indifferent, often hostile, Sir Henry brought his beautiful courtesy, his goodness, his ripe wisdom, and knowledge of the world, and wherever he went people loved him and the warm affection he aroused was a potent factor in changing many opinions of the English.
Many people of this world had never known English people or been in an English house until then, and Sir Henry and his daughters [his wife had died in 1907] made such an impression and so many friendships that one heard a different tone used in speaking of the English, so "simpatico" was her representative. Rome will always cherish and never forget his memory.^[23]

Family

On 2 October 1867 Henry Howard married Cecilia Riggs, daughter of George Washington Riggs. They had three daughters and two sons. Lady Howard (as she became) died on 3 December 1907.^[24]

References

• HOWARD, Sir Henry, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007, accessed 30 May 2012