Sir Ignatius Valentine Chirol (28 May 1852 – 22 October 1929) was a British journalist, prolific author, historian and diplomat.
Early life
He was the son of the Rev. Alexander Chirol and Harriet Chirol . His education was mostly in France and Germany. Growing up in France with his parents, Chirol lived in the city of
Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...
, where he also finished secondary school.
In 1869, the young Chirol, already bilingual, moved to Germany, residing in a small town near
Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
. By 1870, the
Franco-Prussian War had broken out, which Chirol experienced from both sides. He returned to Paris in 1871, just in time to see the Germans enter the city.
Thanks to his good French and German, he was able to come and go easily passing for a citizen of either side, and he began to acquire his taste for adventure and politics.
Given the chaos in France, the Chirols returned to their family home in
Hove
Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th cen ...
. In April 1872, Chirol 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 ...
where he worked for until spring 1876. Unsatisfied with the slow pace of life in the Foreign Office, Chirol returned to travelling where things were much quicker.
Having begun to learn Arabic before he left England, he set off to Egypt arriving in Cairo where he took up residence. In 1879, he set off for Beirut not long after the British had taken control of Cyprus. From there, he travelled inland through Syria with
Laurence Oliphant from whom he would later learn to draw. In the Middle East, he took up journalism for the first time, for the ''Levant Herald'', then the leading newspaper in the Near East.
Chirol moved on travelling, to Istanbul and later throughout the Balkans. From the travels came his first book, ''Twixt Greek and Turk''.
Journalist
Chirol began as correspondent and editor of ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' travelling across the globe writing about international events. His first major post was to Berlin in 1892 where he formed many close relationships with the German Foreign Ministry including the Foreign Minister. He lived there until 1896 and reported on Anglo-German relations. Even after returning to London, Chirol travelled back to Berlin and often acted as a backchannel between the English and Germans.
Later, he succeeded
Donald Mackenzie Wallace
Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace (11 November 1841 – 10 January 1919) was a Scottish public servant, writer, editor and foreign correspondent of ''The Times'' (London).
Early life
Donald Mackenzie Wallace was born to Robert Wallace of Boghead, ...
as director of foreign department of ''The Times'' in 1899.
Despite being in charge of ''The Times'' foreign line, he still managed to travel a great deal. In 1902, he travelled overland to India heading first to Moscow and on to Isfahan, Quetta, Delhi and, finally, Calcutta, where he met with
Lord George Nathaniel Curzon. Chirol and Curzon got on quite well, having first met in Cairo in 1895. Chirol was impressed with Curzon's fine governing calling him "a marvellous man for work". Chirol's first visit to
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
inspired a longtime love for the place to which he would often return throughout his life. Towards the end of his trip, he travelled north to Indore where he stayed with
Sir Francis Younghusband.
After returning to London, Chirol continued working on his next book, ''The Middle Eastern Question'', based on a series of 19 articles by Chirol that appeared in ''The Times'' in 1902 and 1903. His book helped to bring the term Middle East into common usage. Chirol dedicated the book to his new friend, Curzon, whom he would soon see again. In November 1903 he sailed to Karachi where he boarded a yacht to tour the Persian Gulf with Lord and Lady Curzon. Other notable guests on the voyage included a young
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
. Chirol returned to London by Christmas and just as the
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...
was breaking out. He later travelled to Washington D.C., where he met with Teddy Roosevelt and many US Congress members, facilitated by his close friend, Sir
Cecil Spring Rice
Sir Cecil Arthur Spring Rice, (27 February 1859 – 14 February 1918) was a British diplomat who served as British Ambassador to the United States from 1912 to 1918, as which he was responsible for the organisation of British efforts to end ...
.
[The Spectator: 'Sir Cecil Spring Rice' http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/12th-october-1929/23/sir-cecil-spring-rice]
After two decades as a journalist he retired from ''The Times'' on 21 December 1911 and was knighted shortly thereafter, on 1 January 1912, for his distinguished service as a foreign affairs advisor. He rejoined the Foreign Office as a diplomat and was soon on his way to the Balkans as World War I broke out.
World War I
Travelling through Greece, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania, Chirol, along with J.D. Gregory, met with foreign officials and heads of state to help convince them to join the Allied side. In addition, he wrote a stern critique of the Foreign Office's failings in the region, including the ongoing quagmire at
Gallipoli
The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles ...
.
Deprecatory comments in Chirol's book, ''Indian Unrest'', resulted in a
civil suit
-
A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil act ...
being brought against him in London by
Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Bal Gangadhar Tilak (; born Keshav Gangadhar Tilak (pronunciation: eʃəʋ ɡəŋɡaːd̪ʱəɾ ʈiɭək; 23 July 1856 – 1 August 1920), endeared as Lokmanya (IAST: ''Lokmānya''), was an Indian nationalist, teacher, and an independence a ...
, in the
Indian independence movement
The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947.
The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...
. Although Tilak ultimately lost the suit, Chirol ended up spending almost two years in India on account of it, missing the bulk of World War I.
Later life
He later travelled to Paris as part of a government delegation whose job it was to work on terms of peace. Though no longer formally with the newspaper, Chirol continued to write articles occasionally and maintained his wide range of journalistic and diplomatic contacts.
In 1924, he travelled to the United States on a lecture tour and he spoke about the growing problems between the Occident and the Orient and warned against American
isolationism
Isolationism is a political philosophy advocating a national foreign policy that opposes involvement in the political affairs, and especially the wars, of other countries. Thus, isolationism fundamentally advocates neutrality and opposes entang ...
, which he greatly feared. He spent the remainder of his retired life travelling the world to places like Morocco, Egypt, South Africa and, especially, India. In addition, he published a number of other books.
Chirol died in London in 1929 and was missed by many. Major-General Sir
Neill Malcolm
Major-General Sir Neill Malcolm, KCB, DSO (8 October 1869 – 21 December 1953) was a British Army officer who served as Chief of Staff to Fifth Army in the First World War and later commanded the Troops in the Straits Settlements.
Military ...
called him the "friend of viceroys, the intimate of ambassadors, one might almost say the counsellor of ministers, he was
lsoone of the noblest characters that ever adorned British journalism". He was buried in the Brighton Extra Mural Cemetery.
Bibliography
*''Twixt Greek and Turk'' (1881)
*''The Far Eastern Question'' (1896)
*''The Middle Eastern Question'' (1903)
*
*
*''Indian Unrest'' (1910)
*''Serbia and the Serbs'' (1914)
*''Germany and the fear of Russia'' (1914)
*''
Cecil Spring Rice
Sir Cecil Arthur Spring Rice, (27 February 1859 – 14 February 1918) was a British diplomat who served as British Ambassador to the United States from 1912 to 1918, as which he was responsible for the organisation of British efforts to end ...
: In Memoriam'' (1919)
*''The Legal Proceedings in the Case of Tilak V. Chirol and Another: Before Mr. Justice Darling and a Special Jury, January 29th 1919-February 21st 1919, Volume 2.'' (1919) with Bal Bangadhar Tilak.
*''The End of the Ottoman Empire'' (1920)
*''The Egyptian Problem'' (1921)
*''India; Old and New'' (1921)
*''The Boer War and the International Situation, 1899-1902'' (1923)
*''Occident and the Orient; lectures on the Harris Foundation'' (1924)
*
*''India'' (1926)
*''Fifty years in a changing World'' (1927)
*''With Pen and Brush in Eastern Lands'' (1929)
See also
*
Ernest Mason Satow
Sir Ernest Mason Satow, (30 June 1843 – 26 August 1929), was a British scholar, diplomat and Japanologist.
Satow is better known in Japan than in Britain or the other countries in which he served, where he was known as . He was a key fig ...
who mentions Chirol several times in his diaries, 1895–1906.
References
Who's Who (UK)
''Who's Who'' is a reference work. It is a book, and also a CD-ROM and a website, giving information on influential people from around the world. Published annually as a book since 1849, it lists people who influence British life, according to i ...
*
External links
National Portrait Gallery: Portrait of Chirolby
John Collier
*
* by Linda Fritzinger
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chirol, Ignatius Valentine
1852 births
1929 deaths
British diplomats
British non-fiction writers
British male journalists