Sir Maurice William Ernest de Bunsen, 1st Baronet, (8 January 1852 – 21 February 1932),de BUNSEN, Rt Hon. Sir Maurice (William Ernest)’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007 was a British diplomat.

Background and early life

De Bunsen was the son of

Ernest de Bunsen Ernst Christian Ludwig von Bunsen or Ernest de Bunsen (1819 in Rome – 1903 in London) was an Anglo-German writer whose speculative works proposing common origins of Buddhism, Essene Judaism and Christianity were later taken up as part of ra ...

, second son of Frances Bunsen and

Baron von Bunsen Christian Charles or Karl Josias von Bunsen (25 August 1791 – 28 November 1860), also known as , was a German diplomat and scholar. Life Early life Bunsen was born at Korbach, an old town in the German principality of Waldeck. His fat ...

, Prussian ambassador to London, by Elizabeth Gurney. He was educated at Rugby School, and

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

, and entered the diplomatic service in 1877.

Diplomatic career

De Bunsen was trained in the diplomatic service by Richard Lyons, 1st Viscount Lyons, and was a member of the Tory-sympathetic 'Lyons School' of British diplomacy. De Bunsen was appointed Third Secretary in 1879 and Second secretary in 1883. He served as Secretary of Legation in Tokyo 1891–1894, and as Consul- General in Siam 1894–1897. He was Secretary at Constantinople from 1897 until early September 1902, when he left for Paris to be Secretary of Embassy and Minister Plenipotentiary at the British Embassy to France. After three years in that city, he saw his first posting as head of station when he was appointed British Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at Lisbon in 1905. He was

British Ambassador to Spain The Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Spain is the United Kingdom's foremost diplomatic representative in the Kingdom of Spain, and in charge of the UK's diplomatic mission in Spain. The official title is His Britannic Majesty's Ambassador ...

between 1906 and 1913 and to Austria between 1913 and 1914. On 16 July 1914, reporting on what he had been told the previous day at a lunch with Count Heinrich von Lützow, who had learned of the planned aggression against Serbia and was trying to derail what he saw as a coming war, de Bunsen told

Sir Edward Grey Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon, (25 April 1862 – 7 September 1933), better known as Sir Edward Grey, was a British Liberal statesman and the main force behind British foreign policy in the era of the First World War. An adher ...

that "a kind of indictment is being prepared against the Servian Government for alleged complicity in the conspiracy which led to the assassination of the Archduke" and that "the Servian Government will be required to adopt certain definite measures in restraint of nationalistic and anarchistic propaganda, and that Austro-Hungarian Government are in no mood to parley with Servia, but will insist on immediate unconditional compliance, failing which force will be used. Germany is said to be in complete agreement with this procedure." An old hand at the diplomatic game, Von Lutzow made a friend of Bunsen feeling obliged to disclose the truth. However he was a thorough, diligent public servant, and an efficient administrator, who would prove an exemplary wartime record. Reserved, modest and decorous, Sir Maurice would later be forced to resign, but he showed a shrewd alertness to the July crisis. So when he visited Berchtold at his country estate, Buchlau on the 17th they shared a passion for horses. He cabled Sir Arthur Nicholson from Vienna warning him that it was a very grave situation; Austria intended to "compel" Serbia to yield. His wife recorded in her diary

A strong note with ultimatum Lutzow told M is to be sent in the next week probably not acceptable to Serbia.

Whilst he may have believed Austrian innocence Grey had already received the importance of the message loud and clear. The Foreign Minister was reassuringly "charming," and the British showed no further curiosity about the leak of vital information. When on 25 July 1914 Serbia rejected Austria's ultimatum, de Bunsen wrote to Sir Edward Grey "...vast crowds parading the streets and singing patriotic songs till the small hours of the morning." Within a week, the rest of Europe was aflame, and he was recalled to London after the outbreak of the First World War. He headed the

De Bunsen Committee The De Bunsen Committee was the first committee established by the British government to determine its policy toward the Ottoman Empire during and following World War I. The committee was established on 8 April 1915 by British Prime Minister H. H. ...

in 1915, established to determine British wartime policy toward the Ottoman Empire, and was also head of a special mission to South America in 1918. He retired from the diplomatic service in 1919.

Honours

De Bunsen was sworn of the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

in 1906 and created a baronet, of Abbey Lodge, Hanover Gate, in the Metropolitan borough of Saint Marylebone, in 1919. He died in February 1932, aged 80, when the baronetcy became extinct.

Family

De Bunsen married, in 1899,

Bertha Mary Lowry-Corry Bertha is a female Germanic name, from Old High German ''berhta'' meaning "bright one". It was usually a short form of Anglo Saxon names ''Beorhtgifu'' meaning "bright gift" or ''Beorhtwynn'' meaning "bright joy". The name occurs as a theonym, s ...

. They had four daughters *

Hilda Violet Helena de Bunsen Hilda is one of several female given names derived from the name ''Hild'', formed from Old Norse , meaning 'battle'. Hild, a Nordic-German Bellona, was a Valkyrie who conveyed fallen warriors to Valhalla. Warfare was often called Hild's Game. The ...

(1900-), married firstly Major Guy Yerburgh (d 1926), and secondly Major-General Sir Guy Salisbury-Jones * Elizabeth Cicely de Bunsen (1902-), married Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Vivien Campbell Douglas (1902–1977) *Rosaline Margaret De Bunsen (1903-1968) *

Mary de Bunsen Mary de Bunsen (29 May 1910 – 13 April 1982) was a British Air Transport Auxiliary pilot and author. Early life Mary Berta de Bunsen was born in Madrid on 29 May 1910 to Sir Maurice William Ernest (1st Bt) de Bunsen and Bertha Mary Lowry-Co ...

(1910-1982) Air Transport Auxiliary pilot and author

References

Bibliography

* Fischer, Fritz, ''Griff nach der Weltmacht. Die Kriegszielpolitik des Kaiserlichen Deutschland, 1914-1918'', Düsseldorf: Droste Verlag, 1969 * McMeekin, Sean, July 1914: Countdown to War, London, 2013. * Schmidt, B.E., ''The Coming of the War, 1914'', 2 vols, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1930.

Primary sources

* ''British Documents on the Origins of the War, 1898-1914'', ed. G. P. Gooch and Harold Temperley, London, 1926, vols. 1, 8-11.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bunsen, Maurice de 1852 births 1932 deaths Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order Companions of the Order of the Bath Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Austria-Hungary Ambassadors of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to Spain