George Louis St Clair Bambridge (27 September 1892 – 16 December 1943) was a British diplomat. His wife, Elsie (née Kipling), was the daughter of the author

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...

Life

Early life and education

George Louis St Clair Bambridge was born in 1892 to George Frederick Bambridge and Ada Henrietta (née Baddeley). George Frederick Bambridge was the private secretary of

Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Alfred (Alfred Ernest Albert; 6 August 184430 July 1900) was the sovereign duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 1893 to 1900. He was the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. He was known as the Duke of Edinburgh from ...

and the son of photography pioneer

William Bambridge William Samuel Bambridge (24 October 1819 – 1 May 1879) was a school-teacher who accompanied George Augustus Selwyn and William Charles Cotton in the Te Waimate mission, New Zealand, before returning to England where he became photograph ...

; his mother was the daughter of Major John Fraser Loddington Baddeley, an officer of the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

and later of the Royal Gunpowder Factory,

Waltham Abbey Waltham Abbey is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex, within the metropolitan and urban area of London, England, north-east of Charing Cross. It lies on the Greenwich Meridian, between the River Lea in the west and ...

. Following the deaths of his mother (in 1896) and his father (in 1898), Bambridge was brought up in the family of Cecil Floersheim, the husband of George's mother's sister. He was educated at Eton.

Career

At the start of the Great War, Bambridge applied for and received a commission, initially as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Middlesex Regiment, then later as a Captain in the

Irish Guards ("Who Shall Separate s") , colors = , identification_symbol_2 Saffron (pipes), identification_symbol_2_label = Tartan , identification_symbol = , identification_symbol_label = Tactical Recognition F ...

he served from 1914 to 1918 and was awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC ...

. Citation reads: "when the enemy, attacking in great strength, succeeded in driving a wedge into our line, this officer immediately led a counter-attack which was entirly icsuccessful, the enemy being driven back with loss and the line re-established. It was entirly due to his initiative and dash that the line was maintained.". After the war, he served with

Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service His Majesty's Diplomatic Service (HMDS) is the diplomatic service of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, dealing with foreign affairs and representing British interests overseas, as opposed to the Home Civil Service, which ...

as an honorary attache in the embassies in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

August 1922 - resigned July 1924,

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

October 1924, Madrid, December 1925 - resigned 1928 and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

June 1929 - resigned 1932.

Marriage

George Bambridge married Elsie Kipling, daughter of

, on 22 October 1924. The marriage was at the church of

St Margaret's, Westminster The Church of St Margaret, Westminster Abbey, is in the grounds of Westminster Abbey on Parliament Square, London, England. It is dedicated to Margaret of Antioch, and forms part of a single World Heritage Site with the Palace of Westminster ...

; the reception was at the home of Stanley Baldwin, a Kipling family cousin and three times

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern ...

. The couple, who had no children, moved into Burgh House, Hampstead in 1933 where Rudyard Kipling was a regular visitor. Kipling’s last outing was a visit to Burgh House in January 1936 to comfort his son-in-law, who was in bed with bronchitis. The following day, the writer was rushed to hospital, where he died a few days later. In 1937, the Bambridges left Burgh House having purchased Wimpole Hall, near Cambridge, which they bequeathed to the National Trust.

Death and afterward

Bambridge died on 16 December 1943, aged 51, from undisclosed causes, at

Wimpole Hall Wimpole Estate is a large estate containing Wimpole Hall, a country house located within the civil parish of Wimpole, Cambridgeshire, England, about southwest of Cambridge. The house, begun in 1640, and its of parkland and farmland are owned ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the ...

. His widow died in 1976. They are interred in St Andrew's Churchyard,

Wimpole Wimpole is a small village and civil parish in South Cambridgeshire, England, about southwest of Cambridge. Until 1999, the main settlement on the A603 was officially known and signed as ''New Wimpole and Orwell, Cambridge Road''. On 1 April 19 ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bambridge, George 1892 births 1943 deaths Members of HM Diplomatic Service Irish Guards officers Recipients of the Military Cross People educated at Eton College People from Kensington People from Wimpole British Army personnel of World War I 20th-century British diplomats