Sir Hugh Guion MacDonell (5 March 1831, Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany – 25 January 1904, London) was a British diplomat who was envoy to Brazil, Denmark and Portugal.

Background

MacDonell was born in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

on 5 March 1831, the second son of the marriage of Hugh MacDonell of Aberchalder (Scottish Clan MacDonell of Glengarry) and Ida Louise Ulrich. He succeeded his brother Sir Alexander Frederick MacDonell in the representation of the family in the Glengarry Council in Canada. His eldest sister, married to the Alexandre Jean Aguado y Moreno, II Marqués de las Marismas del Guadalquivir, was Dame du Palais to the Empress Eugenie. Another sister, Ida MacDonell, married Don Augusto Conte y Lerdo de Tejada, Spanish Diplomant and Minister Plenipoteniary at Copenhagen.

Life and career

MacDonell attended

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC) was a United Kingdom, British military academy for training infantry and cavalry Officer (armed forces), officers of the British Army, British and British Indian Army, Indian Armies. It was founded in 1801 at Gre ...

, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the

Rifle Brigade The Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army formed in January 1800 as the "Experimental Corps of Riflemen" to provide sharpshooters, scouts, and skirmishers. They were soon renamed the "Rifle ...

on 22 December 1848, He served in

British Kaffraria British Kaffraria was a British colony/subordinate administrative entity in present-day South Africa, consisting of the districts now known as Qonce (King William's Town) and East London. It was also called Queen Adelaide's Province and, unoffici ...

1849–52, but retired from the army on account of ill-health in 1853 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 obtain diplomatic immunity when they are accredited to o ...

. He was

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 ac ...

at Washington and Constantinople. In 1865 he was appointed to Rio de Janeiro as Second Secretary. He did not, however, go there, but took up a similar position at Copenhagen in the following years. He served successively at Buenos Aires, Madrid and Berlin where, in many occasions, he acted as

Chargé d'Affaires A (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador. The term is Frenc ...

. At Buenos Aires he met his distinguished wife, Anne Lumb (daughter of Edward Lumb of Wallington Lodge, Surrey). He was transferred to Rome in 1874, and was promoted to be

at Munich in 1882. In 1885 he went as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Brazil. In 1888 he proceeded in a similar rank to the Court of Denmark. His last post was a posting as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Portugal in 1893, where he stayed until he retired on a pension in 1902.

Honours

MacDonell was appointed a Companion of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by King George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. Recipients of the Order are usually senior British Armed Forces, military officers or senior Civil Service ...

(CB) in 1890, knighted as a Knight Commander of the

Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince of Wales (the future King George IV), while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George III ...

(KCMG) in 1892 and raised to Knight Grand Cross of the order (GCMG) in 1899. He was appointed a

Privy Counsellor The Privy Council, formally His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its members, known as privy counsellors, are mainly senior politicians who are current or former ...

on 11 August 1902, following an announcement of the King's intention to make this appointment in the

1902 Coronation Honours The 1902 Coronation Honours were announced on 26 June 1902, the date originally set for the coronation of King Edward VII. The coronation was postponed because the King had been taken ill two days before, but he ordered that the honours list shou ...

list published in June that year.

Sources

*
MACDONELL, Rt Hon. Sir Hugh Guion
''Who Was Who'', A & C Black, 1920–2014 (online edition, Oxford University Press, 2014)
Sir Hugh Guion MacDonell
The Clan Donald, 1904

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:MacDonell, Hugh Guion 1831 births 1904 deaths Grand Duchy of Tuscany people Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Rifle Brigade officers Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Brazil Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Denmark Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Portugal Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Companions of the Order of the Bath Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom