Henry Drummond Wolff - Biography

Sir Henry Drummond-Wolff GCB, GCMG, PC (1830 – 11 October 1908) was an English diplomat and Conservative Party politician, who started as a clerk in the Foreign Office.

Background

Wolff was the son of Georgiana Mary (née Walpole) and Joseph Wolff. His father was a missionary who had been born Jewish, and his mother a descendant of Prime Minister Robert Walpole.

Political and diplomatic career

Drummond Wolff sat in parliament for Christchurch from 1874 to 1880 and for Portsmouth from 1880 to 1885. Whilst MP for Christchurch he lived in Boscombe, where he developed the Boscombe Spa estate, and he played an active role in the public life of Bournemouth. In 1870 presented the Bournemouth Rowing Club with a four oared racing galley. He was one of the group known as the Fourth Party.

In 1885 he went on a special mission to Constantinople and Egypt in connection with the Eastern Question, and as a result various awkward difficulties, hinging on the Sultan's suzerainty, were addressed. Wolff negotiated a settlement whereby Britain and Turkey would each appoint a commissioner to Egypt to help the khedive's government conduct reforms of the army and the government. Wolff then assumed the role of British high commissioner in Egypt from 1885 to 1887. He was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Teheran in 1888, a post he held until 1891, and was then Ambassador to Madrid from 1892 to 1900.

Drummond Wolff was a notable raconteur, and he did good service to the Conservative Party by helping to found the Primrose League. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in 1862 for various services abroad. He was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) in 1878 and made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) in 1889.

Family

Drummond Wolff's only daughter, Lucas Cleeve, was a novelist. His grandson, Henry Maxence Cavendish Drummond Wolff, was briefly the Conservative Member of Parliament for Basingstoke.

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