Lawrence Townsend (August 13, 1860 – March 8, 1954) was an American diplomat and later in life, after his retirement from government service, a business executive in Washington, DC. Born in Philadelphia, Lawrence Townsend was educated at Mantua Academy (1872–77) and entered the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in the class of 1881. He withdrew from the university at the end of his junior year and went west to Plateau, Colorado, where he owned a large ranch (1881–1886). Returning to Pennsylvania, he married composer Natalie Hannau of Philadelphia on March 8, 1886 and they had three children: Yvonne, Lawrence Jr., and Reginald. In 1889, he went to Vienna to study law and the history of diplomacy, specializing in international law. He published numerous translations of French and German articles in his area of specialization. From Vienna, he launched his diplomatic career. He served as First Secretary of the U.S. Legation in Vienna from 1893–97 and from there was promoted to the post of U.S. Minister to Portugal on June 9, 1897. He served in Lisbon until his transfer to Brussels on April 15, 1899, where he served as U.S. Minister to Belgium until 1905. In 1905 he moved to Washington, D.C., and joined the

Washington Gas WGL Holdings, Inc., is a public utility holding company that serves more than 1 million customers in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia. A subsidiary of AltaGas, it provides natural gas, electricity, sustainable energy, carbon neutral ...

Light Company as its treasurer and later secretary. He and his wife lived in Washington's fashionable

Dupont Circle Dupont Circle (or DuPont Circle) is a traffic circle, park, neighborhood and historic district in Northwest Washington, D.C. The Dupont Circle neighborhood is bounded approximately by 16th Street NW to the east, 22nd Street NW ...

area, at 1416 20th Street, NW, and were prominent members of the Washington social and cultural scene. Later in life, Townsend became active in the

English-Speaking Union The English-Speaking Union (ESU) is an international educational membership organistation. Founded by the journalist Sir Evelyn Wrench in 1918, it aims to bring together and empower people of different languages and cultures, by building skill ...

. He died in 1954, in Florida.

References

Sources

*U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historia

*''The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans.'' Boston: The Biographical Society 190

{{DEFAULTSORT:Townsend, Lawrence Businesspeople from Philadelphia 1860 births 1954 deaths Ambassadors of the United States to Belgium Ambassadors of the United States to Portugal People from Dupont Circle 19th-century American diplomats