Archibald Clerk-Kerr, 1st Baron Inverchapel
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Archibald Clark Kerr, 1st Baron Inverchapel, (17 March 1882 – 5 July 1951), known as Sir Archibald Clark Kerr between 1935 and 1946, was a British diplomat. He served as Ambassador to the Soviet Union between 1942 and 1946 and to the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
between 1946 and 1948.


Background

An Australian-born Scot, Clark Kerr was born Archibald John Kerr Clark, the son of John Kerr Clark (1838–1910), originally from Lanarkshire, Scotland, and Kate Louisa (1846–1926), daughter of Sir John Struan Robertson, five times Premier of the Colony of New South Wales. His family emigrated to England in 1889. In 1911 he assumed the surname of Kerr in addition to that of Clark.thepeerage.com_John_[sic]_Kerr_Clark_Kerr,_1st_and_last_Baron_Inverchapel
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from 1892 to 1900.


Diplomatic career

Clark Kerr entered the Foreign Office">Foreign Service Diplomatic service is the body of diplomats and foreign policy officers maintained by the government of a country to communicate with the governments of other countries. Diplomatic personnel obtains diplomatic immunity when they are accredited to o ...
 in 1906. Early on, he made the mistake of challenging the Foreign Office over its Egyptian policy. Consequently, he found himself posted to a series of capitals in Latin America. He was Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to various Central American republics between 1925 and 1928, to List of Ambassadors from the United Kingdom to Chile, Chile between 1928 and 1930, to Sweden between 1931 and 1934 and to
Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
between 1935 and 1938. He distinguished himself enough in these posts to secure a prestigious appointment as Ambassador to China between 1938 and 1942 during the Japanese occupation. In the ensuing years, he developed a close relationship with the Nationalist Chinese leader Chiang Kai-Shek and spent most of his posting explaining why Britain could not offer him any substantive aid in his struggle against the Japanese invaders. He argued for British aid to China based upon humanitarian concerns, the preservation of British economic influence and the principle of national self-determination. Despite the lack of aid from Britain, he impressed the Chinese with his interest in
Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or ...
philosophy and with his determination. After the British consulate in
Chungking Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a municipality in Southwest China. The official abbreviation of the city, "" (), was approved by the State Coun ...
was almost completely destroyed by Japanese bombing in 1940, other diplomatic missions evacuated, but he kept the
Union Jack The Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. Although no law has been passed making the Union Flag the official national flag of the United Kingdom, it has effectively become such through precedent. ...
flying close to Chinese government buildings. He regularly swam in the
Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in th ...
and, after meeting the American writer
Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...
, dismissed him derisively: "Tough? Why, I'm tougher than he is!" He was moved to
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in February 1942, where he forged a remarkable relationship with
Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
and facilitated a number of Anglo-Soviet diplomatic conferences. His work there and at the Big Three Conferences (such as Yalta and Potsdam) put him at the centre of international politics during the final pivotal years of the Second World War. Throughout his posting in Moscow, he unsuccessfully sought clearer direction from the Foreign Office in London. He often fell back upon a directive received from Churchill in February 1943: "You want a directive? All right. I don't mind kissing Stalin's bum, but I'm damned if I'll lick his arse!" As the war neared its end, Kerr became increasingly concerned about Soviet plans for the postwar world. He did not think the Soviets to plan to begin spreading
world revolution World revolution is the Marxist concept of overthrowing capitalism in all countries through the conscious revolutionary action of the organized working class. For theorists, these revolutions will not necessarily occur simultaneously, but whe ...
, but feared that they were preparing to exert their influence well beyond their prewar sphere of influence. He voiced deepseated concerns about Soviet expansionism for the first time in a lengthy memorandum on Soviet policy dated 31 August 1944. He then forecast three likely results of the war: the removal of any immediate threat to Soviet security, the consolidation of Stalin's dominant position and the Soviet use of communist parties in other countries to serve interests of "Russia as a state as distinct from Russia as a revolutionary notion". This closely resembled the conclusions that
George F. Kennan George Frost Kennan (February 16, 1904 – March 17, 2005) was an American diplomat and historian. He was best known as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War. He lectured widely and wrote scholarly hist ...
included in a telegram to Washington a few months later. After the war, he was appointed Ambassador to the United States, a post that he held until 1948. An acquaintance of
Guy Burgess Guy Francis de Moncy Burgess (16 April 1911 – 30 August 1963) was a British diplomat and Soviet agent, and a member of the Cambridge Five spy ring that operated from the mid-1930s to the early years of the Cold War era. His defection in 1951 ...
and
Donald Duart Maclean Donald Duart Maclean (; 25 May 1913 – 6 March 1983) was a British diplomat who conveyed government secrets to the Soviet Union. As an undergraduate, Maclean openly proclaimed his left-wing views, and was recruited into the Soviet intelligenc ...
's superior in Washington, he took their defection to the Soviet Union badly. The affair also cast a shadow over his career. He died in 1951. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in the 1935 New Year Honours and a Knight Grand Cross in 1942 and was sworn of the Privy Council in 1944. In 1946 he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Inverchapel, of Loch Eck in the County of Argyll.


Personal life

His personal life has been described as colourful. As a young diplomat, he lived in Washington with Major Archibald Butt (a military adviser to President Taft), and his partner, the artist Frank Millet. When he returned to the city 35 years later as British ambassador, he raised eyebrows "by going to stay in Eagle Grove, Iowa, with a strapping farm boy whom he had found waiting for a bus in Washington". While stationed in
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
, Kerr took a liking in Evgeni ater EugeneYost, a 24-year-old
Volga German The Volga Germans (german: Wolgadeutsche, ), russian: поволжские немцы, povolzhskiye nemtsy) are ethnic Germans who settled and historically lived along the Volga River in the region of southeastern European Russia around Saratov ...
embassy butler who had gotten into legal trouble. At Kerr's personal request,
Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
granted him permission to leave the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
to become Kerr's masseur and
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. Kerr jokingly referred to Yost as "a Russian slave given to me by Stalin". A close confidant of the Kaiser's sister in the years before the
Great War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, he was also a disappointed suitor of the
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before his marriage, divorce and remarriage to a Chilean woman 29 years his junior. Politically on the left, a noted wit and unconventional in manner, he was sometimes suspected of excessive understanding for the Soviet position. His biographer, Donald Gillies, considered the rumoured pro-Soviet sympathies to be highly unlikely. He is best remembered in the public imagination for a much reproduced note he is said to have written in 1943 to Lord Pembroke while he was Ambassador to Moscow. A copy of the letter was published in ''
The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...
'' in 1978 with the comment that "an acquaintance has been delving among the Foreign Office records for the war years". "My Dear Reggie, In these dark days man tends to look for little shafts of light that spill from Heaven. My days are probably darker than yours, and I need, my God I do, all the light I can get. But I am a decent fellow, and I do not want to be mean and selfish about what little brightness is shed upon me from time to time. So I propose to share with you a tiny flash that has illuminated my sombre life and tell you that God has given me a new Turkish colleague whose card tells me that he is called Mustapha Kunt. We all feel like that, Reggie, now and then, especially when Spring is upon us, but few of us would care to put it on our cards. It takes a Turk to do that. Sir Archibald Clerk Kerr, H.M. Ambassador" In 1929, he married a woman belonging to the Chilean aristocracy, Doña María Teresa Díaz y Salas, of Santiago, Chile, the daughter of Don Javier Díaz y Lira and Doña Ventura Salas y Edwards. He died in July 1951, aged 69. The barony died with him, as he had no children.


References

*Donald Gillies, ''Radical diplomat: the life of Archibald Clark Kerr, Lord Inverchapel, 1882–1951''; I.B.Tauris publishers, London and New York, 1999. *Erik Goldstein, 'Kerr, Archibald John Kerr Clark, Baron Inverchapel (1882–1951)',
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
,
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 2004


External links


Clark Kerr's letter to Lord Pembroke

Photograph of Clark Kerr
at the National Portrait Gallery. {{DEFAULTSORT:Inverchapel, Archibald Clark Kerr, 1st Baron 1882 births 1951 deaths Diplomatic peers Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to China Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to the Soviet Union Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to the United States Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Sweden Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Iraq Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Chile Australian peers Australian recipients of British honours Australian Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Australian emigrants to England Barons created by George VI