Sir Edmund Douglas Veitch Fane (6 May 1837 – 20 March 1900) was a British diplomat.

Early life and education

Fane was born in

Boyton, Wiltshire Boyton is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It lies in the Wylye Valley within Salisbury Plain, about south-east of Warminster and north-west of Salisbury. The parish includes the village of Corton. The A36 Salisbury-Warminst ...

, the eldest son of Rev. Arthur Fane (d. 1872) of Boyton, prebendary of Salisbury, by Lucy, daughter of John Benett of Pythouse, Wiltshire. His father was a descendant of

Thomas Fane, 8th Earl of Westmorland Thomas Fane, 8th Earl of Westmorland (March 1701 – 25 November 1771) was a British MP for Lyme Regis and a lord commissioner of trade. He was an ancestor of the writer George Orwell. Biography Thomas Fane was the second son of Henry Fane o ...

. He matriculated at

Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the Colleges of Oxford University, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the ...

on 28 May 1855, but did not graduate.

Career

Having entered the diplomatic service, Fane was appointed in 1858 attaché at

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

. In 1863, he was transferred to

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

, and from Turin in 1866 to

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

as second secretary. In varied years 1867 to 1878, Fane had stays of brief duration at Washington, Florence, Munich, Brussels, Vienna, and Berne. He was secretary of legation at Copenhagen 1880–1, secretary of embassy at Madrid 1882–5, and at Constantinople 1886–93, and minister at Belgrade from 1893 until 1898. He negotiated the treaty of commerce with the

Kingdom of Serbia The Kingdom of Serbia ( sr-cyr, Краљевина Србија, Kraljevina Srbija) was a country located in the Balkans which was created when the ruler of the Principality of Serbia, Milan I, was proclaimed king in 1882. Since 1817, the Princi ...

of 10 July 1893. He was posted to

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

as Minister in 1898, and served there for the last 18 months of his life. Though not among the most important diplomatic positions, the Copenhagen post was socially significant due to the close relationship (and many visits) between the royal families of the two countries. In 1897, Fane received the

Jubilee Medal A jubilee is a particular anniversary of an event, usually denoting the 25th, 40th, 50th, 60th, and the 70th anniversary. The term is often now used to denote the celebrations associated with the reign of a monarch after a milestone number of y ...

, and in the 1899 New Year Honours was created a Knight Commander of the

Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, George III, King George III. ...

(KCMG). He was lord of the manor of Boyton, Wiltshire, and a deputy lieutenant and justice of the peace for the county. Fane died on his post in

after suffering from a pulmonary infection in March 1900. He was buried in St. Alban's Church, the English church in Copenhagen.

Family

Fane married, in 1875, Constantia Eleanor Wood, daughter of General R. Blucher Wood. Their younger daughter Etheldred Constantia Fane (1879–1964) married

Sir Horace Rumbold, 9th Baronet Sir Horace George Montagu Rumbold, 9th Baronet, (5 February 1869 – 24 May 1941) was a British diplomat. A well-travelled man who learned Arabic, Japanese language, Japanese and German language, German, he is largely remembered for his role a ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fane, Edmund 1837 births 1900 deaths Burials in Denmark Deputy Lieutenants of Wiltshire British diplomats English justices of the peace Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George People from Wiltshire