- George Hamilton Seymour
Sir George Hamilton Seymour, GCB, GCH, PC (
21 September 1797 –2 February 1880 ) was a British diplomatist.Seymour was born at Harrow,
Middlesex , the eldest son of Lord George Seymour (1763-1848, the seventh son ofFrancis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford ) and his wife, Isabella "née" Hamilton (a granddaughter ofJames Hamilton, 7th Earl of Abercorn ). He was intended at first for the navy but was then sent toEton College and, in March 1813, appointed a Gentleman Usher Daily Waiter to George III. He became a postmaster (award holder) atMerton College, Oxford , and graduated BA in 1818, proceeding MA in 1823. He had already, in March 1817, been appointed anattaché to the Britishlegation atThe Hague . From then on his whole career was spent in diplomacy. In December 1819, he became assistantprécis writer to the foreign secretary, Lord Castlereagh, précis writer in January 1821, and Castlereagh'sprivate secretary in January 1822. He was with Castlereagh shortly before the latter'ssuicide in August 1822. In October 1822 he was attached to the Duke of Wellington's special mission toVerona . He became secretary of legation atFrankfurt am Main on18 August 1823 and was transferred on6 September 1826 toStuttgart , on28 December 1827 toBerlin , and on30 July 1829 toConstantinople .On
13 November 1830 , Seymour was appointed minister-resident atFlorence . In 1831 he was sent on an (unsuccessful) special mission toRome , where Britain had no regular representation at this time, to try to persuadePope Gregory XVI to take a conciliatory line towards the rebels of 1830–31 and guarantee certain civil rights. On21 July 1831 , he married Gertrude Brand (d. 1883), third daughter ofHenry Trevor, 21st Baron Dacre ; they had four sons and three daughters. On27 November 1835 , he was appointed envoy-extraordinary and minister-plenipotentiary to the Belgian court, where he took part in the negotiations by which the independence of Belgium was finally secured. On10 December 1846 , he was moved toLisbon in the same capacity, and he represented the British government through the greater part of the period of insurrection, when the British power supported the Portuguese crown.In 1850, Seymour gave evidence to the select committee on official salaries and gained some notoriety when he replied to a question, 'Certainly I consider that giving dinners is an essential part of diplomacy...I have no idea of a man being a good diplomat who does not give good dinners'. The same year Palmerston wished to send him to Berlin, but Queen Victoria wanted Berlin for Lord Bloomfield and in April 1851, Seymour went to
St Petersburg instead. He is best known for the 'Seymour conversations' withNicholas I of Russia in January–February 1853. The Tsar, encouraged by the formation of the Aberdeen coalition in Britain, reopened the question of contingency planning if theOttoman Empire should collapse, which he had discussed with Lord Aberdeen and the then prime minister, Sir Robert Peel, when he visitedLondon in 1844. The conversations were subsequently leaked in the "St Petersburg Gazette" and "The Times " and contributed to the British belief that the Tsar was actively plotting the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Seymour was recalled in February 1854, just before Britain's entry into theCrimean War . He was pensioned in October 1854 but was recalled to go as envoy-extraordinary toVienna in November 1855 to participate in the international discussions which led eventually to the end of the Crimean War and the Treaty of Paris of 1856. He finally retired in April 1858.Seymour was appointed GCH on
16 March 1836 and GCB on28 January 1847 , and was sworn of the Privy Council on21 November 1855 . He died on2 February 1880 at his home, 10Grosvenor Crescent ,London , and was buried atKensal Green Cemetery .ource
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