User:Kaliforniyka/Sir Victor Wellesley

Sir Victor Alexander Augustus Henry Wellesley KCMG CB (1 March 1876 – 20 February 1954) was a British diplomatist and author from the aristocratic Wellesley family. During the interwar period, he attempted to reform the Foreign Office by providing it the "equipment for diagnosing world economic developments in their relation to political events," but his suggestions went unheeded. In 1944, he wrote the book Diplomacy in Fetters.

Early life

Wellesley was born in Saint Petersburg into a diplomatic family, the only son of Col. Hon. Frederick Arthur Wellesley (1844–1931) and his first wife, Emma Anne Caroline Bloomfield Loftus. At the time of his birth, his maternal grandfather, Lord Augustus Loftus (son of the 2nd Marquess of Ely), was Ambassador to the Russian Empire in Saint Petersburg, where his father was serving as military attaché. Lord Augustus was also British Ambassador at both Berlin and Vienna and Governor of New South Wales. His paternal grandfather, Henry Wellesley, 1st Earl Cowley, a nephew to the Duke of Wellington, was British Ambassador to France.

His uncles were Francis Bertie, 1st Viscount Bertie of Thame, Charles Yorke, 5th Earl of Hardwicke, and William Wellesley, 2nd Earl Cowley.

Wellesley returned to England as a baby and was baptisted in July 1876 at Draycot Cerne, Wiltshire. He named after his godparents: Queen Victoria and his two grandfathers, Henry, Earl Cowley; and Lord Augustus Loftus. He and his mother resided at Lord Cowley's house during Russo-Turkish War, while his father left for the seat of war.

Afterwards his father was appointed secretary to the British Embassy at Vienna, but he had begun an affair with the burlesque dancer Kate Vaughan, star of the Gaiety Theatre, London, and was living with openly with her in Vienna and London. Attempts were made by the Wellesley family to reconcile the couple, but his father refused. His mother divorced his father in 1882 on grounds of adultery and desertion and his mother was given custody of him.

His father married Vaughan in 1884, but she left him in 1892 after he experienced financial difficulties. She traveled frequently with her own troop and refused to return to live with him. He divorced her in 1897 on grounds of her adultery with an actor. She died in 1903. In 1904, he remarried a third time to Evelyn Katrine Gwenfra, Duchess of Wellington, widow of the 3rd Duke of Wellington and daughter of Lt.-Col. Thomas Peers Williams.

COLONEL WELLESLEY AND MISS VAUGHAN. In the Divorce Division, on Thursday, Sir James Ha,nnen had before him the suit of Wellesley v. Wellesley. The petition was that of the wife for the dissolution of the marriage ' on the ground of the desertion and adultery of her husband, the Hon. Frederick Arthur Wellesley, son of Lord Cowley. Mr. Searle, who appeared for the petitioner, said that the respondent, Col. Wellesley, at the time of the marriage, was military attache at the British Embassy, bt. Petersburg, and his wife accompanied him there. When the Russo- Turkish war broke out Col. Wellesley's duty took him to the seat of war, and upon his return to this country they lived at Lord Cowley's house, but the husband was cold in his manner towards her, and refused to occupy the same room. Afterwards he was appointed secretary to the Embassy at Vienna, at which time Mrs. Wellesley was at St. Petersburg, where her father was ambassador. She joined her husband, but he refused to occupy the same room. Upon their return to England she went to live at her father's house, at Queen's-gate, and Col. Wellesley refused to live with her. He continually went to the Gaiety Theatre, and told his wife how much he admired Miss Vaughan, the actress, who actually was at Vienna with him. They had for some time lived together as man and wife at Vienna, Mrs, Emma 'Annie Caroline Wingfield Wellesley, the petitioner, said that she was married to Col, Wellesley on the 15th December, 1873, at St. Augustine's Church, Kensington. At the time he was military attach 6 at the British Embassy at St. Petersburg.- She was 18 years of age, and he was 29. There was one child of the marriage. At first she had no reason to complain of his conduct, but afterwards he treated her with neglect. While on a visit to Lord Cowley's he refused to sleep with her. After he returned from Vienna he refused to occupy the same rooms.

When in London he insisted upon constantly visiting the Gaiety Theatre end seeing Miss Vaughan abt. Miss Vaughan came to Vieipa, when witness was there, and the respondent and Miss Vaughan left there together. She offered to forgive him if he returned, but without success, _ Mr. Collyer Bristowe, solicitor to Col. 'Wellesley's family, said that he was present at the marriage. In the summer of 1879 he was at Vienna and saw Col. Wellesley, and endeavoured to effect a reconciliation, but he.refused to again live with his wife. Evidence was then given to the effect that at 5, A.delphi-terrace, Col. Wellesley and Miss Vaughan, the actress, lived together as man and wife. His Lordship granted a decree nisi with costs, and gave the petitioner the custody of the child of the marriage.

and his father first remarried t9 and thirdly to Evelyn,

He was educated privately. He was Page of Honour to Queen Victoria from 1887–92.

Career

Im 1899, Wellesley became a clerk at the Foreign Office.

14 March 1905 The London Gazette, Issue 27774, Page 2014 …ly pleased to has Foreign Office, February 14, 1905. The KING has been graciously pleased to appoint Victor Alexander Augustus Henry Wellesley, Esq., to be an Acting Second Secretary in His Majesty's Diplomatic Service.

24 January 1908 The London Gazette, Issue 28102, Page 565 Foreign Office, January \, 1908, The KING has been graciously pleased to appoint? Victor Alexander Augustus Henry Wellesley, Esq., to be Commercial Attach^ to His Majesty's Embassy at Madrid and His Majesty's Legation at Lisbon.

Six years later, he was appointed acting Second Secretary in the Diplomatic Service, and in 1905-06 he was attached to the Embassy in Rome. After serving as secretary to the British deletates to the Berne Labour Confer- ence of 1906 he was appointed Commercial Attachd to the Embassy at Madrid and the Legation at Lisbon, and from 1913 to 1916 he held the post of Superintendent of the Foreign Offlce Treaty Department. In 1916 he was appointed Controller of Commercial and Consular Affairs, a post which he held until 1924 with the honorary rank of Assistant Under-Secretary of State. He visited the con- sulates in South and Central America in 1919- 20, and in 1925 he was appointed Deputy Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office, a position which he held until his retirement in 1936.

To some of us in the Foreign Office, the late Sir Victor Wellesley ranked among ou great men, in the highest class, that of Sir Eyre Crowe and Lord Tyrrell. About 1918-19, as Controller of Commercial and Consular Affairs, he started his struggle for a new Foreign Office provided with "equipment for diagnosing world economic developments in their relation to political events" (see his book, Diplomacy in Fetters, p. 40). His conception was ignored. From about 1920 onwards he was in charge of Far Eastern affairs and was at the back of the new policy in the Pacific -the Washington Conference (1922), non-renewal of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, cooperation with the United States, recognition of the new forces in China. In 1930-31, backed by the authority of Arthur Henderson, he tried again to make adequate provision for an economic department in the Foreign Office. Henderson's approach displeased the Prime Minister (Mr. MacDonald) and the Secretary to the Treasury (Sir Warren Fisher), and the project lapsed. With the advent of the first National Government (1931) and Lord Read- ing as Foreign Secretary, Wellesley was commissioned to submit the views of the Foreign Office on the world situation; and he drew special attention to the German restlessness, the uncertainties of the Polish frontier, the fears for French security, the call for more explicit guarantees by Great Britain and the opportunity, to use economic and financial weight to effect a political settlement. This programme did not suit the second National Government; and it offended the Treasury and the Board of Trade, who considered that the Foreign Office was trespassing. But if Wellesley's advice in 1931, as in 1919, had been accepted, it is just possible that the final disaster might not have occurred. It is for this reason that some of us rate him so highly, and consider that he was ignored and pushed aside by lesser men than he

Honours

He was made a Companion of the Bath (CB) in the 1919 New Year Honours. He was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1926 Birthday Honours.

In addition to being the author of three books, Conversations with Napoleon III (with Robert Sencourt, 1934), Diplomacy in Fetters, which was published in 1944 and contained detailed proposals for the improvement of the methods of British foreign policy, and Recollections of a Soldier-Diplomat, published in 1947, he was a keen amateur artist and exhibited at the Royal Academy and in several other leading exhibitions.

Personal life

He married in 1909 Alice Muriel, daughter of Oscar Leslie Stephen and Alice Gertrude Greville, sister of George Greville, niece of Sir Alexander Condie Stephen, and great-granddaughter of Fulke Greville. She died in 1949, and their only daughter died in infancy.

They had a daughter, Anne Muriel Wellesley (22 May 1913 – 20 February 1919), who died in childhood.

Will

WILLS AND BEQUESTS SIR VicToR ALEXANDER AUGUSTUS HENRY WELLESLEY. of Ranelagh Grove, S.W., formerly Deputy Under-Secretary of State, Foreign Office, left ?28,434 (duty paid, ?4,396). He left the Garter Star in round gilt frame, " said to have belonged to the great Duke of Marlborough," to Sir Winston Churchill; all correspondence, official and private, of the Duke of Wellington to his brother, Sir Henry Wellesley, during the Peninsular War (nine volumes of manuscript) and other effects to the person who is Duke of Wellington at the time of his death; the choice of the contents of a vitrine (these are objects, mostly pottery, of Inca, Egyptian, Phoenician, Persian, Greek, and Chinese origin) and other effects to the Victoria and Albert Museum: and oil paint- ings and watercolours specifically to the National Gallery, the Tate Galery, the Leighton House Museum, Kensington, and the Russell Cotes Museum and Art Gallery, Bournemouth.

Bibliography

• Wellesley, Sir Victor (1944). Diplomacy in Fetters. London: Hutchinson & Co. OCLC 754157241.
• ——; Sencourt, Robert (1934). Conversations with Napoleon III. London: Ernest Benn. OCLC 458932499.
• Wellesley, Hon. Frederick Arthur (1947). Wellesley, Victor (ed.). Recollections of a Soldier-Diplomat. London: Hutchinson & Co. OCLC 1308604892.
• —— (1947). "Foreign Affairs and the Public". Journal of International Affairs. 23 (1). Oxford University Press (OUP): 73–73. doi:10.2307/3017742. ISSN 1468-2346.

Ancestry

Ancestors of Kaliforniyka/Sir Victor Wellesley

16. Garret Wesley, 1st Earl of Mornington 8. Henry Wellesley, 1st Baron Cowley 17. Anne Hill-Trevor 4. Henry Wellesley, 1st Earl Cowley 18. Charles Cadogan, 1st Earl Cadogan 9. Lady Charlotte Cadogan 19. Mary Churchill 2. Hon. Frederick Wellesley 20. James FitzGerald, 1st Duke of Leinster 10. Lord Henry FitzGerald 21. Lady Emily Lennox 5. Hon. Olivia FitzGerald 22. Hon. Robert Boyle-Walsingham 11. Charlotte, 21st Baroness de Ros 23. Charlotte Hanbury Williams 1. Sir Victor Wellesley 24. Charles Loftus, 1st Marquess of Ely 12. John Loftus, 2nd Marquess of Ely 25. Jane Myhill 6. Lord Augustus Loftus 26. Sir Henry Dashwood, 3rd Baronet 13. Anna Maria Dashwood 27. Helen Mary Graham 3. Emma Loftus 28. Henry Francis Greville 14. Henry Francis Greville 29. Catherine Graham 7. Emma Greville 30. John Despard 15. Harriet Despard 31. Harriot Anne Hesketh