Sir Henry Austin Lee, (6 April 1847 − 7 November 1918) was a British diplomat, governor and landowner. He was counselor of embassy, commercial attache for

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, and

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. He was a tenant of the Channel Island of

Jethou Jethou ( ) is a small island that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey in the Channel Islands. It is privately leased from the Crown, and not open to the public. Resembling the top of a wooded knoll it is immediately south of Herm and covers a ...

from 1890 until his death; he was succeeded as tenant of Jethou by

Compton Mackenzie Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie, (17 January 1883 – 30 November 1972) was a Scottish writer of fiction, biography, histories and a memoir, as well as a cultural commentator, raconteur and lifelong Scottish independence, Scottish nation ...

. Henry Austin Lee was born 6 April 1847 in

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

British Ceylon British Ceylon ( si, බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය ලංකාව, Britānya Laṃkāva; ta, பிரித்தானிய இலங்கை, Biritthāṉiya Ilaṅkai) was the British Crown colony of present-day Sri Lanka between ...

, the second son of George Lee, the Postmaster General of Ceylon (1844-1860) and Martha née Austin. He was educated at

Elizabeth College, Guernsey The Royal College of Elizabeth, better known as Elizabeth College, is a co-educational independent school in Saint Peter Port, Guernsey. One of the earliest members of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC), it is a public school ...

, and then went to

Pembroke College, Oxford Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located at Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale, and was named after ...

. He joined the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * Unit ...

in 1870. In 1871 he was appointed to the

; where he served as a protocolist to the Sugar Conference in London in 1872 ; appointed British Commissioner in Paris, under article XXI of the Treaty of Commerce in November 1872 ; acted as Third Secretary in the Diplomatic Service from 6 August 1873. He was attached to the Embassy in Paris from November 1872 to July 1875. After serving on the joint Channel-Tunnel Commission in April 1875, he was appointed with Sir

Edward Malet Sir Edward Baldwin Malet, 4th Baronet (10 October 1837 – 29 June 1908) was a British diplomat. Edward Malet came from a family of diplomats; his father was Sir Alexander Malet, British minister to Württemberg and later to the German Co ...

to negotiate the renewal of the Treaty of Commerce with Italy; was attached to the Marquis of Salisbury, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil's Special Embassy to Constantinople, in November 1876, and to the special Embassy during the Congress at Berlin in June 1878, as Private Secretary to the

Earl of Beaconsfield Earl of Beaconsfield, of Hughenden in the County of Buckingham, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1876 for Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, a favourite of Queen Victoria. Victoria favoured Disraeli's Tory poli ...

Benjamin Disraeli Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British statesman and Conservative politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a central role in the creation o ...

. He was Private Secretary to Sir

Charles Wentworth Dilke Charles Wentworth Dilke (1789–1864) was an English liberal critic and writer on literature. Professional life He served for many years in the Navy Pay-Office, on retiring from which in 1830 he devoted himself to literary pursuits. Lit ...

, at the Foreign Office from 1880 to 1882; was a member, in 1881, of the Royal Commission for negotiating a Treaty of Commerce with France; was Private Secretary to Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice from 1883 to 1885, to

James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce, (10 May 1838 – 22 January 1922), was a British academic, jurist, historian, and Liberal politician. According to Keoth Robbins, he was a widely-traveled authority on law, government, and history whose exper ...

, in 1886, and to

Sir James Fergusson James Fergusson may refer to: Politics *Sir James Fergusson, 6th Baronet (1832–1907), Governor of South Australia, New Zealand and Bombay *Sir James Fergusson, 8th Baronet (1904–1973), Lord Lieutenant of Ayrshire *Sir James Fergusson, Lord Ki ...

, from 1886 to 1887. In December 1887 he was appointed Second Secretary to the Paris Embassy and acted as Private Secretary to the Ambassador,

Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton Edward Robert Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, (8 November 183124 November 1891) was an English statesman, Conservative politician and poet who used the pseudonym Owen Meredith. He served as Viceroy of India between 1876 and 1880durin ...

. In 1891 he was selected to represent the British Government on the Council of the

Suez Canal Company Suez ( ar, السويس '; ) is a seaport city (population of about 750,000 ) in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez (a branch of the Red Sea), near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same boun ...

. In February 1892 he was appointed First Secretary in the Diplomatic Service and on the appointment of the Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, Marquis of Dufferin and Ava as Ambassador in Paris, Lee became his Private Secretary, and continued in that capacity until the Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood's retirement in October 1896, when he was appointed Commercial Attache to Embassy in the place of Sir

Joseph Archer Crowe Sir Joseph Archer Crowe (25 October 1825, London – 6 September 1896, Werbach, Gamburg an der Tauber, today Werbach, Germany) was an England, English journalist, consular official and art historian, whose volumes of the ''History of Painti ...

. In 1892 he married Madeleine de Wolf Smith, daughter of Benjamin Franklin Smith and widow of Arthur Taylor. He was appointed a Companion of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

(CB) in the

1892 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1892 were appointments by Queen Victoria to various orders and honours of the United Kingdom and British India. They were announced in ''The Times'' on 1 January 1892, and the various honours were gazetted in ''The London Ga ...

. He was knighted as 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) in the November

1902 Birthday Honours The 1902 Birthday Honours were announced on 10 November 1902, to celebrate the birthday of Edward VII the previous day. The list included appointments to various orders and honours of the United Kingdom and the British Empire. The list was publi ...

list, and was invested with the insignia by King

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria an ...

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a London royal residence and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality. It ...

on 18 December 1902.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Henry Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to France Companions of the Order of the Bath Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George 1847 births 1918 deaths People educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey Alumni of Pembroke College, Oxford British landowners People from British Ceylon 19th-century British businesspeople