Sir Ronald Charles Lindsay (3 May 1877 – 21 August 1945), PC, CVO

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...

, GCB, KCMG, 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...

 civil servant and 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...

.

He was born in 1877, the fifth son of James Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford

James Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford

James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford and 9th Earl of Balcarres was a British astronomer, politician, bibliophile and philatelist. A member of the Royal Society, Crawford was elected president of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1878. He was a prominent Freemason.-Family:The Earl was the...

, and educated at Winchester College

Winchester College

Winchester College is an independent school for boys in the British public school tradition, situated in Winchester, Hampshire, the former capital of England. It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and claims the longest unbroken history of any school in England...

.

From 1913 to 1919 he was Under-Secretary of Finance for Egypt, then from 1919 to 1920 the Councillor of the Embassy in Washington D.C., before being posted as Minister Plenipotentiary to France. Following this, in 1921, he was appointed the Assistant Under-Secretary of State for the Foreign Office, a post he held until 1924. In 1925 he was appointed the Ambassador to Turkey, and in 1926 moved to become the Ambassador to Germany. He returned to London in 1928 to become the Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, the civil-service head of the Foreign Office.

After two years as Permanent Secretary, he was named as the Ambassador to the United States in November 1929, and took up the position early the next year. He remained in Washington for almost a decade, retiring in June to be replaced by Lord Lothian

Philip Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian

Philip Henry Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian KT CH PC was a British politician and diplomat.Philip Kerr was the son of Lord Ralph Drury Kerr, the third son of John Kerr, 7th Marquess of Lothian...

 in June 1939.

He married twice, both times to Americans; in 1909 to Martha Cameron, the daughter of J. Donald Cameron

J. Donald Cameron

James Donald Cameron was an American politician from Pennsylvania who served as Secretary of War under Ulysses S. Grant and in the United States Senate for twenty years....

; after her death, he married Elizabeth Sherman Hoyt, daughter of Colgate Hoyt

Colgate Hoyt

Colgate Hoyt was an American businessman active in the late nineteenth century. He was a director of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, and one of the founders of Everett, Washington, where a main street is named after him. He was a New York investment banker who was the partner of Joseph...

 and grandniece of William Tecumseh Sherman

William Tecumseh Sherman

William Tecumseh Sherman was an American soldier, businessman, educator and author. He served as a General in the Union Army during the American Civil War , for which he received recognition for his outstanding command of military strategy as well as criticism for the harshness of the "scorched...

, in 1924. There were no children from either marriage.