Sir Michael Palairet (29 September 1882 – 5 August 1956) was a British diplomat who was minister to Romania, Sweden and Austria, and minister and ambassador to Greece.

Early life

Palairet was the son of Charles Harvey Palairet, by his marriage to Emily Henry. After his mother's early death, in 1888 his father married secondly Nora Hamilton Martin. Palairet was educated at

Ludgrove School Ludgrove School is an English independent boys preparatory boarding school. Ludgrove was founded in 1892 at Ludgrove Hall in Middlesex by the Old Etonian sportsman Arthur Dunn. Dunn had been employed as a master at Elstree School, which sent ...

and

Eton College Eton College () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI of England, Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. i ...

. He spent time in France and Germany to improve his languages before joining 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 t ...

in 1905.

Career

Palairet was posted to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

in 1906,

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

in 1908,

Paris Paris () is the capital and 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), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

in 1913, and

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh List ...

in 1917. In 1918 he was posted back to Paris for the Peace Conference. After a brief time in the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United S ...

in London, he returned to Paris in 1920 with the rank of First Secretary. In 1922 he was posted as Counsellor to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

where he and his family survived the

Great Kanto earthquake Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" *Artel Great (born ...

on 1 September 1923, which devastated Tokyo and destroyed the British embassy. He moved on to

Peking } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

in 1925, returned to London in 1926, and returned to Rome again in 1928.

As an experienced middle-rank diplomatist, Palairet then became minister to Romania in December 1929. Here their charm and hospitality and keen interest in Romanian culture won the Palairets a wide circle of friends. Prince Carol, who returned from exile and became king in 1930, showed no grudge at having been requested to leave England in 1928 because of his alleged involvement in a plot to place him on the Romanian throne. Good Anglo-Romanian relations, both political and commercial, were established, but German economic and political penetration had become menacing before Palairet left for Stockholm in 1935. — Peter Neville in ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''

Palairet was minister to Sweden 1935–37 before being posted 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 ...

as minister to Austria in December 1937. This was a critical time for Austria. Palairet reported to the Foreign Office that

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and the ...

had 'raved like a madman' at Austrian Chancellor

Kurt Schuschnigg Kurt Alois Josef Johann von Schuschnigg (; 14 December 1897 – 18 November 1977) was an Austrian Fatherland Front politician who was the Chancellor of the Federal State of Austria from the 1934 assassination of his predecessor Engelbert Dollfu ...

during their meeting at

Berchtesgaden Berchtesgaden () is a municipality in the district Berchtesgadener Land, Bavaria, in southeastern Germany, near the border with Austria, south of Salzburg and southeast of Munich. It lies in the Berchtesgaden Alps, south of Berchtesgaden; th ...

on 12 February 1938. There was nothing that Britain could do: the ''

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the Nazi Germany, German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "Ger ...

'' followed on 11–12 March and Palairet was recalled to London. He was sent as the second UK delegate (with Lord Winterton) to the

Évian Conference The Évian Conference was convened 6–15 July 1938 at Évian-les-Bains, France, to address the problem of German and Austrian Jewish refugees wishing to flee persecution by Nazi Germany. It was the initiative of United States President Franklin D. ...

on Jewish refugees on 6–13 July. In September–December 1938 he was sent to take charge of the legation in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north ...

because of the illness of his successor as minister there, Sir Reginald Hoare. In June 1939 he was posted to Athens again as minister to Greece. When the German army approached Athens in April 1941 the British Embassy was evacuated, but Palairet remained accredited to the

Greek government in exile The Greek government-in-exile was formed in 1941, in the aftermath of the Battle of Greece and the subsequent occupation of Greece by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. The government-in-exile was based in Cairo, Egypt, and hence it is also referr ...

and accompanied them to

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cypru ...

and then, after the fall of Crete in May 1941, to

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo met ...

. His post was upgraded to

Ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

in 1942 before he retired in April 1943. However, he returned to the Foreign Office as a temporary Assistant

Under-Secretary Undersecretary (or under secretary) is a title for a person who works for and has a lower rank than a secretary (person in charge). It is used in the executive branch of government, with different meanings in different political systems, and is a ...

, dealing with matters concerning prisoners of war, until July 1948. Michael Palairet was appointed CMG in December 1923, after the Tokyo earthquake, along with the British consuls at Kobe and Yokohama. He was 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 pres ...

of 1938, following his return from Vienna after the

of Austria in March 1938.

Private life

Palairet married Mary de Vere Studd (1895–1977), a society beauty who was painted by

Augustus John Augustus Edwin John (4 January 1878 – 31 October 1961) was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a time he was considered the most important artist at work in Britain: Virginia Woolf remarked that by 1908 the era of John Singer Sarg ...

. The couple both converted to Roman Catholicism. Their daughter, Anne, was born in Paris in 1916. She married

Julian Asquith, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Asquith Julian Edward George Asquith, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Asquith, (22 April 1916 – 16 January 2011) was a British colonial administrator and hereditary peer. Background and education Asquith was the only son of Katharine (née Horner) and Ray ...

at the

Brompton Oratory Brompton Oratory is a large neo-classical Roman Catholic church in the Knightsbridge area of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London. Its full name is the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, or as named in its Grade II* archite ...

in 1947.

Family

Charles Palairet was descended from a

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Bez ...

family called Palayret who had fled initially to the Netherlands, later to England, when

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ve ...

revoked the

Edict of Nantes The Edict of Nantes () was signed in April 1598 by King Henry IV and granted the Calvinist Protestants of France, also known as Huguenots, substantial rights in the nation, which was in essence completely Catholic. In the edict, Henry aim ...

in 1689.Neville, P. (23 September 2004). Palairet, Sir (Charles) Michael (1882–1956), diplomatist. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 8 Dec. 2017
link
/ref> He was a cousin of the cricketers

Lionel Palairet Lionel Charles Hamilton Palairet (27 May 1870 – 27 March 1933) was an English amateur cricketer who played for Somerset and Oxford University. A graceful right-handed batsman, he was selected to play Test cricket for England twice in ...

and

Richard Palairet Richard Cameron North Palairet (25 June 1871 – 11 February 1955) was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Oxford University and Somerset. After his playing days, he became a prominent cricket administrator, acting as secret ...

. In 1915 he married Mary, daughter of Herbert Studd. Their daughter Anne married

External links

Portrait of Sir (Charles) Michael Palairet
at the National Portrait Gallery, London

References

PALAIRET, Sir Michael
Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007, retrieved 10 June 2012 {{DEFAULTSORT:Palairet, Michael 1882 births 1956 deaths People educated at Eton College Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Romania Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Sweden Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Austria Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Greece Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Greece in World War II People educated at Ludgrove School