Sir Cecil Arthur Spring-Rice GCMG

Order of St Michael and St George

The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....

 GCVO

Royal Victorian Order

The Royal Victorian Order is a dynastic order of knighthood and a house order of chivalry recognising distinguished personal service to the order's Sovereign, the reigning monarch of the Commonwealth realms, any members of her family, or any of her viceroys...

 (27 February 1859 – 14 February 1918), was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 diplomat

Diplomat

A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...

 who served as British Ambassador to the United States from 1912 to 1918.

Early life

Spring-Rice was the son of Hon. Thomas William Spring Rice, second son of the prominent Whig politician and former Chancellor of the Exchequer

Chancellor of the Exchequer

The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called the Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...

 Thomas Spring Rice, 1st Baron Monteagle of Brandon

Thomas Spring Rice, 1st Baron Monteagle of Brandon

Thomas Spring Rice, 1st Baron Monteagle of Brandon, PC, FRS was a British Whig politician, who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1835 to 1839.-Background:...

. He was educated at Eton

Eton College

Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....

 and Balliol College, Oxford

Balliol College, Oxford

Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....

.

Career

Spring-Rice went on to become the British Chargé d'Affaires

Chargé d'affaires

In diplomacy, chargé d’affaires , often shortened to simply chargé, is the title of two classes of diplomatic agents who head a diplomatic mission, either on a temporary basis or when no more senior diplomat has been accredited.-Chargés d’affaires:Chargés d’affaires , who were...

 in Tehran

Tehran

Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...

 (1900), Commissioner of Public Debt in Cairo

Cairo

Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

 (1901) and Chargé d'Affaires in St. Petersburg (1903). He later served in Persia (1906) and Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 (1908) before his appointment as ambassador to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in 1912. He was abruptly recalled in a one-line telegram, and died in Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

 shortly thereafter, where he is buried in Beechwood Cemetery

Beechwood Cemetery

Beechwood Cemetery is the National Cemetery of Canada. Because it is located in Ottawa, Ontario, the nation's capital, it is the burial site for a number of statesmen as well as a large number of mayors of the city. A woodland cemetery founded in 1873, it is 160 acres and is the largest cemetery...

.

According to Edmund Morris, in his The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt is a Pulitzer Prize winning biography of President Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris. It is the first in a trilogy, with the second volume Theodore Rex published in 2001 and the third volume Colonel Roosevelt in late 2010.The Rise covers the time period from...

, "Spring-Rice was a born diplomat [who] invariably picked out and cultivated the most important person in any place". He was well respected in London's diplomatic circles. Further, "he was one of [President] Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...

's most ardent and loyal admirers" and acted as Roosevelt's best man in Roosevelt's wedding to Edith Carrow. Spring-Rice memorably remarked about Roosevelt: "You must remember that the president is about six".

However he seems to have been unable to turn these earlier close links to the administration to a relationship of use to his government. Spring-Rice had earned the enmity of his government after becoming paranoid - seeing German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 spies

SPY

SPY is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* SPY , ticker symbol for Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts* SPY , a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps* SPY , airport code for San Pédro, Côte d'Ivoire...

 everywhere - and also because of his immense dislike of any British visitors to Washington that were not under the control of his embassy.

The US found him obstructive and his description of Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson

Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...

 as a "mysterious personage" doesn't suggest a particularly close relationship.

Writings

He wrote the present text for the hymn

Hymn

A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...

 I Vow to Thee My Country, which can now be found in many British Hymn books, revising a poem of his own, about the same time. He was a close friend of Sir Ignatius Valentine Chirol, a British journalist and later diplomat, with whom he corresponded for many years.