Sir Walford Harmood Montague Selby (19 May 1881 – 7 August 1965) was a British civil servant and diplomat.

Career

Selby was educated at Charterhouse School and Christ Church, Oxford, and joined the

Diplomatic Service Diplomatic service is the body of diplomats and foreign policy officers maintained by the government of a country to communicate with the governments of other countries. Diplomatic personnel obtains diplomatic immunity when they are accredited to o ...

in 1904 as an

attaché In diplomacy, an attaché is a person who is assigned ("to be attached") to the diplomatic or administrative staff of a higher placed person or another service or agency. Although a loanword from French, in English the word is not modified accord ...

. He served in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

and

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

where he was on the Secretariat of the

Peace Conference A peace conference is a diplomatic meeting where representatives of certain states, armies, or other warring parties converge to end hostilities and sign a peace treaty. Significant international peace conferences in the past include the follo ...

in 1907. He returned to the Foreign Office in London in 1908. He was on the staff of

Lord Rosebery Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, 1st Earl of Midlothian, (7 May 1847 – 21 May 1929) was a British Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from March 1894 to June 1895. Between the death of ...

when he made a special visit to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

to announce the accession of

King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Qu ...

in 1910. After that Selby was secretary to the committee preparing for George V's coronation, and was a Gold Staff Officer (assistant to the

Earl Marshal Earl marshal (alternatively marschal or marischal) is a hereditary royal officeholder and chivalric title under the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, sovereign of the United Kingdom used in England (then, following the Act of Union 1800, in the U ...

) at the actual coronation in 1911. He was assistant private secretary to

Sir Edward Grey Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon, (25 April 1862 – 7 September 1933), better known as Sir Edward Grey, was a British Liberal statesman and the main force behind British foreign policy in the era of the First World War. An adhe ...

, the Foreign Secretary, 1911–15, and private secretary to

Lord Robert Cecil Edgar Algernon Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, (14 September 1864 – 24 November 1958), known as Lord Robert Cecil from 1868 to 1923,As the younger son of a Marquess, Cecil held the courtesy title of "Lord". However, he ...

, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1915–18. He wanted to join the army but the Foreign Office would not release him until 1918 when he was able to join the

Grenadier Guards "Shamed be whoever thinks ill of it." , colors = , colors_label = , march = Slow: " Scipio" , mascot = , equipment = , equipment ...

shortly before the

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

ended. He then returned to the Foreign Office and was First Secretary in the High Commission at

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

1919–22; Principal Private Secretary to the Foreign Secretary 1924–32; envoy to

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

1933–37; and ambassador to

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

1937–40.

Honours

Walford Selby was appointed MVO in 1911 and raised to CVO in 1924. He was appointed CB in the

New Year Honours The New Year Honours is a part of the British honours system, with New Year's Day, 1 January, being marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. A number of other Commonwealth realms also mark this ...

of 1926 and knighted KCMG in the

King's Birthday Honours The Birthday Honours, in some Commonwealth realms, mark the reigning British monarch's official birthday by granting various individuals appointment into national or dynastic orders or the award of decorations and medals. The honours are prese ...

of 1931.Supplement to the London Gazette, 3 June 1931
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Publications

Murray, 1953

References

SELBY, Sir Walford Harmood Montague
''Who Was Who'', A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2012
Obituary: Sir Walford Selby: Diplomatist Of The Old School
''The Times'', London, 9 August 1965, page 10
Sir Walford Selby
(obituary), ''The Glasgow Herald'', 9 August 1965

External links

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Bodleian Library, University of Oxford {{DEFAULTSORT:Selby, Walford Harmood Montague 1881 births 1965 deaths People educated at Charterhouse School Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Principal Private Secretaries to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Austria Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Portugal Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Companions of the Order of the Bath Commanders of the Royal Victorian Order Members of HM Diplomatic Service 20th-century British diplomats