John Harington Gubbins (24 January 1852 – 23 February 1929) was a British linguist, consular official and diplomat. He was the father of Sir Colin McVean Gubbins.

Education

Gubbins attended

Harrow School (The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God) , established = (Royal Charter) , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school , religion = Church of E ...

and would have gone on to

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, had family finances allowed.

Career

Gubbins was appointed a student interpreter in the

British Japan Consular Service Britain had a functioning consular service in Japan from 1859 after the signing of the 1858 Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce between James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and the Tokugawa Shogunate until 1941 when Japan invaded British colon ...

in 1871. He was English Secretary to the Conference at Tokyo for the Revision of the Treaties, after

Ernest 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 ...

left Japan in 1883. On 1 June 1889, he was appointed Japanese Secretary in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. He was employed in London at 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 ...

from February to July 1894 in the

Aoki may refer to: People *Aoki (surname), a list of people with the surname Places *Aoki, Nagano, a village in the Nagano Prefecture Company * Aoki Corporation, a defunct construction company * Aoki (store), a men's clothing store based in Japan Fi ...

- Kimberley negotiations which resulted in the

Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation The signed by Britain and Japan, on 16 July 1894, was a breakthrough agreement; it heralded the end of the unequal treaties and the system of extraterritoriality in Japan. The treaty came into force on 17 July 1899. From that date British subje ...

(16 July 1894). He was appointed CMG in the 1898 Birthday Honours. He was, especially in retirement, a close friend of Satow's. He was elected the first President of the newly founded

Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch The Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch is a learned society based in Seoul, South Korea. Established in 1900 as the world's first Korean studies organization, it was founded to provide a platform for scholarly research on the history, culture and ...

in 1900. Despite having no university degree, Gubbins was awarded an honorary master's degree from

Balliol College 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 was made Lecturer in

Japanese language is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been ma ...

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

(1909–12). Lack of pupils led to his position being terminated.

Family

Gubbins frequently visited

Colin Alexander McVean Colin Alexander McVean, FRGS (6 March 1838 – 18 January 1912) was a Scottish civil engineer who made a considerable contribution to Japan's engineering development in 1870s. He left two brief autobiographies, diaries, photos, letters and a co ...

's residence at Yamato Yashiki, Tokyo around the 1870s, and met his daughter Helen. After McVean returned to Scotland and settled down at the

Isle of Mull The Isle of Mull ( gd, An t-Eilean Muileach ) or just Mull (; gd, Muile, links=no ) is the second-largest island of the Inner Hebrides (after Skye) and lies off the west coast of Scotland in the Council areas of Scotland, council area of Arg ...

, Gubbins visited the McVean family and met Helen again. 41 years Gubbins and 24 years Helen fell in love and married in 1894, then lived in Japan. They had four children, who were grown up at McVean's residence at the

. The second son was

Colin McVean Gubbins Major-General Sir Colin McVean Gubbins (2 July 1896 – 11 February 1976) was the prime mover of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in the Second World War. Gubbins was also responsible for setting up the secret Auxiliary Units, a command ...

, who became chief of the

Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its pu ...

later.

References

* Ian Nish, "John Harrington Gubbins, 1852-1929," chap. 8 in ''Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits'', vol. 2, edited by Ian Nish (Japan Library, 1997). * Private correspondence from J.H. Gubbins to Sir

, 1908–27, UK Public Record Office (PRO 30/33 11/8, 11/9, and 11/10). {{DEFAULTSORT:Gubbins, John Harington 1852 births 1929 deaths British expatriates in Japan Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George People educated at Harrow School

Education

Career

Family

See also

References