Horace James Seymour

Sir Horace James Seymour GCMG CVO (26 February 1885 – 10 September 1978) was a British diplomat, Ambassador of the United Kingdom to China from 1942 to 1946.

Early life and family

The elder son of Hugh Francis Seymour and the great-grandson of Col. Hugh Henry John Seymour, Seymour was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge.

Career

Seymour entered the Foreign Office and Diplomatic Service in 1908. He was Second Secretary at the British Embassy to the United States in 1919, First Secretary in the Netherlands in 1923 and in Italy in 1925, then from 1932 to 1936 Principal Private Secretary to the British Foreign Secretary. He was next British Minister ('Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary') in Tehran, from 1936 to 1939, Assistant Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office, 1939 to 1942, and then British Ambassador to China, from 1942 to 1946. He retired in 1947.

Between April 1947 and July 1947, he was a member of the Franco-Siamese Boundary Commission in Washington, D.C., and in December 1947 was appointed chairman of the British Delegation to the Balkans Commission, based at Salonika, in Greece.

Marriage and children

In 1917, Seymour married Violet, daughter of Thomas Edward Erskine, and they had three daughters, Jane (who died in infancy on 15 Aug 1918), Joan, and Virginia, and one son, Hugh Francis Seymour (born 14 December 1926). They lived at Bratton House, Bratton, Westbury, Wiltshire.

Honours

• Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, 1927
• Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, 1936
• Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, 1939
• Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George, 1946

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