Edgar Vincent, 1st Viscount D'Abernon

The Right Honourable The Viscount D'Abernon GCB GCMG PC FRS
Lord D'Abernon in 1926
Personal details
Born	Edgar Vincent (1857-08-19)19 August 1857 Slinfold, West Sussex, England
Died	1 November 1941(1941-11-01) (aged 84) Hove, England
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Helen Venetia Duncombe
Education	Eton College

Edgar Vincent, 1st Viscount D'Abernon GCB GCMG PC FRS^[1] (19 August 1857 – 1 November 1941) was a British politician, diplomat, art collector and author.

Early life

Caricature by Spy (Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair magazine (20 April 1899)

Vincent was the youngest son of Sir Frederick Vincent, 11th Baronet, of Stoke D'Abernon (1798–1883) and his second wife, Maria Copley (d. 1899).^[2] He was born at Slinfold, West Sussex and educated at Eton College for the diplomatic service. Instead, he spent five years as a member of the Coldstream Guards before coming into the service as secretary to Lord Edmond FitzMaurice, Queen's Commissioner on the East Rumelian Question. He was himself appointed Commissioner for the Evacuation of Thessaly (ceded to Greece by Turkey) and advised the Egyptian government on financial matters from 1883 to 1889.

Ottoman Bank crash

That year he became governor of the Imperial Ottoman Bank. One of his policies was to get the Bank involved in South African mining shares on European stock exchanges. This caused a speculation craze in Constantinople where tens of thousands of people bought South African mining shares, a lot of them with money loaned from the Ottoman Bank. This led to a run on the Bank in late 1895 and then a crash in the share values, followed by an international panic and the financial ruin of many of those who invested in the shares. Vincent who personally made a fortune from the shares was heavily condemned for his role in the disaster.^[2]

In 1896 the banking office in Constantinople was occupied by a group of armed Armenians who threatened to destroy the building with bombs. Vincent escaped through a skylight and notified the Turkish authorities at the Sublime Porte and secured a negotiator from the Russian Embassy. The attackers agreed to surrender their bombs in exchange for safe passage to exile in France, being conducted on Sir Edgar's private vessel.^[3]

Member of Parliament

In 1899 he was elected a Conservative Member of Parliament for Exeter. He was less a true Conservative than a personal devotee of the Conservative leader, A. J. Balfour. He held the seat until losing to a Liberal in 1906. He opposed the Conservative policy of Tariff Reform and unsuccessfully stood for the Liberal Party in Colchester in December 1910. In July 1914 he was raised to the peerage as Baron D'Abernon of Esher, Surrey, upon the recommendation of the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith.^[2]

Poland

D'Abernon was part of the Interallied Mission to Poland in July 1920, during the Polish-Soviet War. Later this experience provided material for his book The Eighteenth Decisive Battle of the World: Warsaw, 1920 (1931).

Ambassador to Germany

From 1920 to 1925 D'Abernon was the British Ambassador to Berlin. In September 1921 he wrote that the success of the Inter-Allied Military Commission of Control, which reported on German disarmament, meant that there would be no military danger from Germany for many years and that it would be impossible for the Germans to conceal the manufacture of heavy weaponry.^[4] In February 1922 he criticised the idea of a military alliance between Britain and France:

The fundamental criticism...is that England undertakes definite and very extensive responsibilities in order to avoid a danger which she believes to be largely imaginary. An armed attack by Germany on France within the next twenty-five years is admittedly improbable, an attack by Germany on England in the same period even more so...the whole tone of the French is to assume that the real danger to the future peace of Europe is military aggression by Germany.^[5]

On 9 February 1925 D'Abernon wrote that it was necessary "to abandon the view that Germans are such congenital liars that there is no practical advantage in obtaining from them any engagement or declaration. On this assumption progress is impossible. Personally I regard the Germans as more reliable and more bound to written engagements than many other nations".^[6]

Lord Vansittart called D'Abernon "the pioneer of appeasement".^[7] General J. H. Morgan also called D'Abernon "the apostle of 'appeasement' and did not believe in the possibility, much less the probability, of a German military revival".^[8]

Honours

D'Abernon was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1887,^[9] promoted to Knight Grand Cross in 1917,^[10] and made Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in 1926.^[11] He joined the Privy Council in 1920,^[12] was created Baron D'Abernon, of Esher in the county of Surrey, in 1914^[13] and elevated to Viscount D'Abernon, of Esher and Stoke d'Abernon in the county of Surrey, in 1926.^[14] He succeeded his elder brother as 16th Baronet of Stoke d'Abernon in 1936.

Directorships

After his retirement from the foreign service, D'Abernon devoted his time to directorships of numerous domestic organisations such as the Lawn Tennis Association, the Race Course Betting Control Board, the Medical Research Council, and the National Institute of Industrial Psychology, and the Royal Mint advisory committee. He was also a trustee of the National and Tate Galleries, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1934.^[1]^[15] He was also President of the Royal Statistical Society from 1926 to 1928.^[16]

Personal life

D'Abernon married the renowned beauty Helen Venetia Duncombe in 1890. Together they shared a love of society and the fine arts, especially English painting. Both had portraits made by John Singer Sargent. She posed for hers in 1904 at their villa, the Palazzo Giustiniani, in Venice. Vincent was Chairman of the royal commission on National Museums and Galleries, which published its report in 1928. The bulk of their art collection was sold at auction in 1929.^[17] Two works once in their collection are in the National Gallery,^[18] three at the National Gallery of Art, Washington,^[19] and others at the (Mellon) Yale Center for British Art and other museums.

D'Abernon died of hypostatic pneumonia and Parkinson's disease at Hove in November 1941.^[2] As the couple were childless, his titles became extinct when he died.

Styles and honours

Edgar Vincent (1857–1887)
Sir Edgar Vincent KCMG (1887–1899)
Sir Edgar Vincent KCMG MP (1899–1906)
Sir Edgar Vincent KCMG (1906–1914)
The Right Honourable The Lord D'Abernon KCMG (1914–1917)
The Right Honourable The Lord D'Abernon GCMG (1917–1920)
The Right Honourable The Lord D'Abernon GCMG PC (1920–1926)
The Right Honourable The Viscount D'Abernon GCMG PC (1926)
The Right Honourable The Viscount D'Abernon GCB GCMG PC (1926–1934)
The Right Honourable The Viscount D'Abernon GCB GCMG PC FRS (1934–1941)

Works

A Grammar of Modern Greek (1881)
Alcohol – Its Action on the Human Organism, His Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1918
An Ambassador of Peace, 3 volumes, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1929–1931
The eighteenth decisive battle of the world: Warsaw, 1920, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1931; reprinted by Hyperion Press, Westport, Conn., 1977, ISBN 0-88355-429-1

Notes

1 2 Dale, H. H. (1942). "Edgar Vincent, Viscount D'Abernon. 1857-1942". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society. 4 (11): 83–86. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1942.0008.
1 2 3 4 Richard Davenport-Hines, 'Vincent, Edgar, Viscount D'Abernon (1857–1941)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 10 July 2011.
↑ Kinross, Lord Patrick Balfour (1977) The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire. New York: Morrow Quill Paperbacks. ISBN 0-688-03093-9
↑ Lord D'Abernon, An Ambassador of Peace. Volume I (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1929), p. 14.
↑ D'Abernon, Volume I, pp. 259–260.
↑ Leopold Schwarzschild, World in Trance (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1943), p. 155.
↑ Lord Vansittart, The Mist Procession (London: Hutchinson, 1958), p. 276.
↑ J. H. Morgan, Assize of Arms. Being the Story of the Disarmament of Germany and Her Rearmament (1919–1939) (London: Methuen, 1945), p. 334.
↑ "No. 25726". The London Gazette. 2 August 1887. p. 4192.
↑ "No. 30111". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 June 1917. p. 5457.
↑ "No. 33212". The London Gazette. 19 October 1926. p. 6685.
↑ "No. 32086". The London Gazette. 15 October 1920. p. 9979.
↑ "No. 28848". The London Gazette. 10 July 1914. p. 5362.
↑ "No. 33136". The London Gazette. 26 February 1926. p. 1428.
↑ "Fellows of the Royal Society K-Z". Royal Society. July 2007. Retrieved 1 April 2010.
↑ "Royal Statistical Society Presidents". Royal Statistical Society. Archived from the original on 17 March 2012. Retrieved 5 August 2010.
↑ Old Masters Bring $646,500 in London (29 June 1929) The New York Times
↑ National Gallery
↑ National Gallery of Art, Washington

References

"D'Abernon, Edgar Vincent, 1st Baron" (1911) Encyclopædia Britannica. 11th edition.
Paul Auchterlonie, 'A Turk of the west: Sir Edgar Vincent's career in Egypt and the Ottoman Empire,’ British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 27:1. (2000) pp. 49–68. ISSN 1353-0194
Richard Davenport-Hines, ‘Vincent, Edgar, Viscount D'Abernon (1857–1941)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 10 July 2011.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Edgar Vincent, 1st Viscount D'Abernon.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Edgar Vincent, 1st Viscount D'Abernon

Lord Curzon and the Appointment of Lord D'Abernon as Ambassador to Berlin in 1920 by Gaynor Johnson, Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 39, No. 1, 57–70 (2004)
National Registry Archive contains several excerpts of D'Abernon writings
Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Sir Edgar Vincent

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Henry Northcote	Member of Parliament for Exeter 1899–1906	Succeeded by Sir George Kekewich
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Viscount D'Abernon 1926–1941	Extinct
New creation	Baron D'Abernon 1914–1941	Extinct
Baronetage of England
Preceded by Frederick Vincent	Baronet (of Stoke d'Abernon) 1936–1941	Extinct

Presidents of the Royal Statistical Society
19th century	1834–1836 The Marquess of Lansdowne 1836–1838 Sir Charles Lemon, Bt 1838–1840 The Earl FitzWilliam 1840–1842 Viscount Sandon 1842–1843 The Marquess of Lansdowne 1843–1845 Lord Ashley 1845–1847 The Lord Monteagle of Brandon 1847–1849 The Earl FitzWilliam 1849–1851 The Earl of Harrowby 1851–1853 The Lord Overstone 1853–1855 The Earl FitzWilliam 1855–1857 The Earl of Harrowby 1857–1859 Lord Stanley 1859–1861 Lord John Russell 1861–1863 Sir John Pakington, Bt 1863–1865 William Henry Sykes 1865–1867 The Lord Houghton 1867–1869 William Ewart Gladstone 1869–1871 William Newmarch 1871–1873 William Farr 1873–1875 William Guy 1875–1877 James Heywood 1877–1879 George Shaw-Lefevre 1879–1880 Thomas Brassey 1880–1882 James Caird 1882–1884 Robert Giffen 1884–1886 Rawson W. Rawson 1886–1888 George Goschen 1888–1890 Thomas Graham Balfour 1890–1892 Frederic J. Mouat 1892–1894 Charles Booth 1894–1896 The Lord Farrer 1896–1897 John Biddulph Martin 1897 Alfred Edmund Bateman 1897–1899 Leonard Courtney 1899–1900 Henry Fowler 1900–1902 The Lord Avebury
20th century	1902–1904 Patrick George Craigie 1904–1905 Sir Francis Powell, Bt 1905–1906 The Earl of Onslow 1906–1907 Richard Martin 1907–1909 Sir Charles Dilke, Bt 1909–1910 Jervoise Athelstane Baines 1910–1912 Lord George Hamilton 1912–1914 Francis Ysidro Edgeworth 1914–1915 The Lord Welby 1915–1916 Lord George Hamilton 1916–1918 Bernard Mallet, Registrar General 1918–1920 Herbert Samuel 1920–1922 R. Henry Rew 1922–1924 The Lord Emmott 1924–1926 Udny Yule 1926–1928 The Viscount D'Abernon 1928–1930 A. William Flux 1930–1932 Sir Josiah Stamp 1932–1934 The Lord Meston 1934–1936 Major Greenwood 1936–1938 The Lord Kennet 1938–1940 Arthur Lyon Bowley 1940–1941 Henry William Macrosty 1941 Hector Leak 1941–1943 William Beveridge 1943–1945 Charles Ernest Snow 1945–1947 The Lord Woolton 1947–1949 David Heron 1949–1950 Sir Geoffrey Heyworth 1950–1952 Austin Bradford Hill 1952–1954 Ronald Fisher 1954–1955 The Lord Piercy 1955–1957 Egon Pearson 1957–1959 Harry Campion 1959–1960 Hugh Beaver 1960–1962 Maurice Kendall 1962–1964 Joseph Oscar Irwin 1964–1965 Sir Paul Chambers 1965–1966 L. H. C. Tippett 1966–1967 M. S. Bartlett 1967–1968 Frank Yates 1968–1969 Arthur Cockfield 1969–1970 R. G. D. Allen 1970–1971 Bernard Benjamin 1971–1972 George Alfred Barnard 1972–1973 Harold Wilson 1973–1974 D. J. Finney 1974–1975 Henry Daniels 1975–1977 Stella Cunliffe 1977–1978 Henry Wynn 1978–1980 Sir Claus Moser 1980–1982 David Cox 1982–1984 Peter Armitage 1984–1985 Walter Bodmer 1985–1986 John Nelder 1986–1987 James Durbin 1987–1989 John Kingman 1989–1991 Peter G. Moore 1991–1993 T. M. F. Smith 1993–1995 D. J. Bartholomew 1995–1997 Adrian Smith 1997–1999 R. N. Curnow 1999–2001 Denise Lievesley
21st century	2001–2003 Peter Green 2003–2005 Andy Grieve 2005–2007 Tim Holt 2008–2009 David Hand 2010–2010 Bernard Silverman (resigned Feb 2010; replaced pro tem by David Hand) 2011–2012 Valerie Isham 2013–John Pullinger
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