List of diplomats of the United Kingdom to the Ottoman Empire

This is a list of diplomats of the United Kingdom to the Ottoman Empire.

Ambassadors from England

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (August 2022)

The first ambassador from England to the Ottoman Empire or Porte was appointed in 1583 under the reign of Elizabeth I.

1583-1588: William Harborne, merchant
1588-1598: Sir Edward Barton
1598-1606: Sir Henry Lello
1606-1611: Sir Thomas Glover
1611-1620: Sir Paul Pindar
1621-1628: Sir Thomas Roe
1627-1641: Sir Peter Wyche
1641-1646: Sir Sackville Crowe
1647-1661: Sir Thomas Bendish
1660-1667: Heneage Finch, 3rd Earl of Winchilsea
1668-1672: Sir Daniel Harvey
1672-1681: Sir John Finch
1681-1687: James Brydges, 8th Baron Chandos
1687-1691: Sir William Trumbull^[1]
1691: Sir William Hussey^[1]
1691: Sir William Harbord appointed but died en route to Constantinople^[1]
1692-1701: William Paget, 6th Baron Paget^[1]
1698 James Rushout appointed but died before he could travel to Constantinople^[1]

Ambassadors from Great Britain

1700-1717: Sir Robert Sutton^[1]
1716-1718: Edward Wortley Montagu, husband of writer Lady Mary Wortley Montagu^[1]
1718-1730 Abraham Stanyan^[1]
1729-1737: George Hay, 8th Earl of Kinnoull^[1]
1737-1746: Everard Fawkener (departed 1742)^[1]
1742-1747: Stanhope Aspinwall In charge of affairs^[1]
1747-1762: Sir James Porter^[1]
1761-1764: Henry Grenville^[1]
July–November 1765: Robert Colebrooke^[2]
1765-1775: John Murray^[1]
1775-1793: Sir Robert Ainslie^[1]
1793-1796: Sir Robert Liston
1796 - Francis James Jackson
1796-1799: John Spencer Smith, Minister Plenipotentiary

Ambassadors from the United Kingdom

1799-1803: Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin
1803 (Jan-May): Alexander Straton (minister plenipotentiary)^[3]
1803-1804: William Drummond
1804-1807: Charles Arbuthnot
1807-1809 Sir Arthur Paget^[4]
1808 and 1809: Sir Robert Adair special mission in 1808, Ambassador in 1809
1809-1812: Stratford Canning (chargé d'affaires in the absence of an ambassador during the Napoleonic Wars)
1812-1820: Sir Robert Liston (his second term)
March–August 1820 Bartholomew Frere - minister plenipotentiary
1820-1824: Percy Clinton, Viscount Strangford
1824-1825: William Turner - minister plenipotentiary
1825-1827: Stratford Canning (again)
1827-1832: (British Embassy was withdrawn following the Battle of Navarino), during this period Sir Robert Gordon was envoy extraordinary and John Hobart Caradoc led a special mission to Greece and Egypt. Canning returned for a period in 1831-32 for the conferences to determine the borders of Greece, with John Henry Mandeville as minister-plenipotentiary.
1832-1841: John, Lord Ponsonby
Mar-Oct 1841: Charles Bankhead minister-plenipotentiary
1841-1858: Stratford Canning, 1st Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe (again) with Henry Richard Charles Wellesley as minister-plenipotentiary in 1845
1858-1865: Sir Henry Bulwer
1865-1867: Richard Lyons, 1st Baron Lyons
1867-1877: Sir Henry Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound
1877-1880: Sir Henry Layard
May 1880: George Joachim Goschen (special ambassador)
1881-1884: Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Earl of Dufferin
1884-1886: Sir Edward Thornton
1886-1891: Sir William White
1891-1893: Sir Clare Ford
1893-1898: Sir Philip Currie
1898-1908: Sir Nicholas O'Conor-Don
Apr–Jul 1908: Sir George Head Barclay
1908-1913: Sir Gerard Lowther, 1st Baronet
1913-1914: Sir Louis Mallet
1914-1918: no diplomatic relations due to World War I
1918-1919: Somerset Gough-Calthorpe (British High Commissioner), also Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet
1919-1920: John de Robeck (British High Commissioner), also Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet
1920-1923: Sir Horace Rumbold, 9th Baronet (British High Commissioner at Constantinople). 1923-1924: British representative to Turkey.

From 1925 onwards, following the formation of the Republic of Turkey, see: List of ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Turkey

List of other prominent British residents

1880s: Francis Richard Plunkett served as Diplomatic Secretary
1876: Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury - Represented Britain at the Six Powers Constantinople Conference.
late 19th century: Sir Edgar Vincent, Director-General of the Imperial Ottoman Bank
17th century: Sir Paul Rycault - Secretary to the Ambassador and Consul in Smyrna.
Thomas Dallam: organ maker
William Biddulph: Protestant chaplain in Aleppo
In 1653 the Commonwealth appointed one Richard Lawrence as agent
1668-1671: Sir George Etherege, restoration rake and writer, secretary to Daniel Harvey

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o D. B. Horn, British Diplomatic Representatives 1689-1789 (Camden 3rd Ser. 46, 1932)
^ thepeerage.com
^ Alfred C. Wood, A History of the Levant Company, Oxford: Oxford UP, 1935, pp. 183-184.
^ J. M. Rigg, Paget, Sir Arthur (1771–1840), H. C. G. Matthew, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008), accessed 30 Nov 2008.

[Horn-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o D. B. Horn, British Diplomatic Representatives 1689-1789 (Camden 3rd Ser. 46, 1932)

[2] thepeerage.com

[3] Alfred C. Wood, A History of the Levant Company, Oxford: Oxford UP, 1935, pp. 183-184.

[4] J. M. Rigg, Paget, Sir Arthur (1771–1840), H. C. G. Matthew, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008), accessed 30 Nov 2008.

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