Sir Arthur James de la Mare (15 February 1914 – 15 December 1994) was a British diplomat. He rose to the rank of High Commissioner of Singapore, and was a leading authority on Asian affairs to the British Foreign Office.
Life and career
Arthur James de la Mare was born into a farming family in Saint John,
Jersey
Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label= Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west France. It is the l ...
. He grew up speaking the Norman French
patois
''Patois'' (, pl. same or ) is speech or language that is considered nonstandard, although the term is not formally defined in linguistics. As such, ''patois'' can refer to pidgins, creoles, dialects or vernaculars, but not commonly to jargon o ...
of his native island. He was educated at
Victoria College, Jersey
Victoria College is a Government-run, fee-paying, academically selective day schoolPembroke College, Cambridge, where he gained a
double first
The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variati ...
in modern languages. He joined the
Foreign Service
Diplomatic service is the body of diplomats and foreign policy officers maintained by the government of a country to communicate with the governments of other countries. Diplomatic personnel obtains diplomatic immunity when they are accredited to o ...
in 1936 and served in
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
,
Seoul
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...
,
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
and
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
De la Mare was acting consul general to Seoul by 1938 when the consul general fell ill and had to return to Britain. At the time he had nothing more than two years' Japanese language training.
Upon his arrival in Seoul in the late 1930s he was acting consul general, and then the vice consul promptly retired, and De la Mare took on his responsibilities as well. De la Mare had no consular training at this stage. He was later appointed head of the Far Eastern department of the Foreign Office.
He was appointed ambassador to
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
1968–70 and ambassador to
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
1970–73.
De la Mare oversaw the transition to independence from Britain whilst High Commissioner for Singapore. De la Mare expressed his anger that the British military bases on the island were handed over to the Singapore
People's Action Party
The People's Action Party (abbreviation: PAP) is a major conservative centre-right political party in Singapore and is one of the three contemporary political parties represented in Parliament, alongside the opposition Workers' Party (WP) and ...
government. De la Mare's valedictory dispatches from Thailand and Singapore are included in
Matthew Parris
Matthew Francis Parris (born 7 August 1949) is a British political writer and broadcaster, formerly a Conservative Member of Parliament. He was born in South Africa to British parents.
Early life and family
Parris is the eldest of six childre ...
's boo ''Parting Shots'' (Penguin, 2011). In a view that was considered old-fashioned at the time, De la Mare maintained that the British Empire could be a force for good around the world.
De la Mare was appointed CMG in 1957, and knighted KCMG in 1968. After
the Queen
In the English-speaking world, The Queen most commonly refers to:
* Elizabeth II (1926–2022), Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 1952 until her death
The Queen may also refer to:
* Camilla, Queen Consort (born 1947), ...
's visit to Thailand in 1972 she gave him the additional knighthood of KCVO and the
King of Thailand
The monarchy of Thailand (whose monarch is referred to as the king of Thailand; th, พระมหากษัตริย์ไทย, or historically, king of Siam; th, พระมหากษัตริย์สยาม) refers to the c ...
made him a Knight Grand Cross of the
Order of the White Elephant
__NOTOC__
The Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant ( th, เครื่องราชอิสริยาภรณ์อันเป็นที่เชิดชูยิ่งช้างเผือก; ) is an order of Thailand. It wa ...
.
He lived in the 1960s and 1970s in Walton on Thames, Surrey. He had an impish sense of humour. One of his neighbours saw Sir Arthur, somewhat shabbily dressed, doing the gardening in 1965. Assuming he was a hired hand, The neighbour asked him whether he would be willing to do the gardening at his house. Sir Arthur readily agreed. It took him some weeks to reveal to his neighbour that he was the ex-ambassador to Afghanistan and a Knight of the British Empire.
De la Mare had retired to his native Jersey by 1991.