Sir James William Ronald Macleay GCMG (1870 – 5 March 1943) was a British diplomat.

Biography

Macleay was educated at

Charterhouse School (God having given, I gave) , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , president ...

and

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

, and entered diplomatic service in 1895. He was appointed Second Secretary in November 1901. He served in Washington, D.C., Constantinople, Mexico City and Brussels, among other postings. He was Counsellor with the British Legation in Peking from 1914 to 1919 and was Ambassador to Argentina from 1919 to 1922. In 1922 Macleay returned to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

becoming ambassador from 1922 to 1926. His period as ambassador to China was criticized, and although Macleay was favorable to American ambassador

John Van Antwerp MacMurray John Van Antwerp MacMurray (October 6, 1881 – September 25, 1960) was an American attorney, author and diplomat best known as one of the leading China experts in the U.S. government. He served as Assistant Secretary of State from November 192 ...

, it was not reciprocated; MacMurray described him as "a Tory of the type that neither imagined good could come out of any liberal ideas hatched at Washington under the auspices of the American rebels, nor perceived within China itself had been developing ideas which had already challenged and movements which had undermined British primacy." In 1927 he became British Minister to Czechoslovakia until 1929 and in 1930 until 1933 returned to his post as Ambassador to Argentina. He married Evelyn, daughter of Sir Robert Peel, 3rd Baronet, in 1901.

References

MACLEAY, Sir (James William) Ronald
''Who Was Who'', A & C Black, 1920–2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2012 Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Argentina Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to China Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Czechoslovakia 1870 births 1943 deaths People educated at Charterhouse School Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Grand Crosses of the Order of the White Lion {{UK-diplomat-stub