Archibald Clark 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
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between 1946 and 1948.


Background

An Australian-born Scot, Lord Inverchapel 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 The Colony of New South Wales was a colony of the British Empire from 1788 to 1901, when it became a State of the Commonwealth of Australia. At its greatest extent, the colony of New South Wales included the present-day Australian states of New ...
. His family emigrated to England in 1889. In 1911 he assumed the surname of Kerr in addition to that of Clark.thepeerage.com John
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from 1892 to 1900.


Diplomatic career

Kerr entered the Foreign Office">Foreign Service Foreign Service may refer to: * Diplomatic service, the body of diplomats and foreign policy officers maintained by the government of a country * United States Foreign Service, the diplomatic service of the United States government **Foreign Service ...
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
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between 1931 and 1934 and to
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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, Inverchapel 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
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. 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, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, religion, theory of government, or way of life. Founded by Confucius ...
philosophy and with his determination. After the British consulate in
Chongqing ChongqingPostal Romanization, Previously romanized as Chungking ();. is a direct-administered municipality in Southwestern China. Chongqing is one of the four direct-administered municipalities under the State Council of the People's Republi ...
was almost completely destroyed by Japanese bombing in 1940, other diplomatic missions evacuated, but he kept the
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flying close to Chinese government buildings. He regularly swam in the
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and, after meeting the American writer
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, 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 Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
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 planned 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 power well beyond their prewar sphere of influence. He voiced deep-seated 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 the 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
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, a post 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 double 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 ...
and
Donald Duart Maclean Donald Duart Maclean (; 25 May 1913 – 6 March 1983) was a British diplomat and Soviet double agent who participated in the Cambridge Five spy ring. After being recruited by a Soviet agent as an undergraduate student, Maclean entered the civil ...
's superior in Washington, he took their defection to the Soviet Union badly. The affair also cast a shadow over his career. He was appointed a
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(KCMG) in the
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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. From November 1948 to January 1949 he was a member of the British delegation to the Committee for the Study of European Unity, convened by the
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to draw up the blueprint of the future
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.


Personal life

Kerr's personal life has been described as colourful. A bisexual, as a young diplomat he lived in Washington with Major
Archibald Butt Archibald Willingham DeGraffenreid Clarendon Butt (September 26, 1865 – April 15, 1912) was an American Army officer and aide to presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. After a few years as a newspaper reporter, he served t ...
(a military adviser to
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), and Butt's 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 Eagle Grove is a city in Wright County, Iowa, Wright County, Iowa, United States. The population was 3,601 at the time of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Eagle Grove is the largest city in Wright County. History Eagle Grove was pla ...
, with a strapping farm boy whom he had found waiting for a bus in Washington". While stationed in
Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
, Kerr took a liking in Evgeni ater EugeneYost, a 24-year-old
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embassy butler who had got into legal trouble. At Kerr's personal request,
Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
granted him permission to leave the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
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
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's sister in the years before the
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, 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 political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...
'' in 1978 with the comment that "an acquaintance has been delving among the Foreign Office records for the war years". In 1929, he married a woman belonging to the Chilean aristocracy, María Teresa Díaz Salas, of
Santiago, Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...
, the daughter of Javier Díaz Lira and Ventura Salas 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 History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...
,
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, 2004


External links


Clark Kerr's letter to Lord Pembroke

Photograph of Clark Kerr
at the
National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: * National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra * National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London ...
. {{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 Australian expatriates in England British bisexual politicians LGBTQ peers