Augustus Loftus

Augustus Loftus

Lord Augustus William Frederick Spencer Loftus GCB , PC (born October 4, 1817 in Bristol , † March 7, 1904 in Ascot ) was a British diplomat and colonial official.

He was the fourth son of John Loftus, 2nd Marquess of Ely (1770-1845). He began his career as an attaché in Berlin in 1837 after training at Eton and Cambridge . In 1844 he was transferred to Stuttgart and from 1848 to 1852 accompanied Sir Stratford Canning on his special missions to Berlin, Vienna , Munich , Athens and Constantinople . In 1852 he became legation secretary in Stuttgart and in 1853 in Berlin.

Augustus Loftus then served as ambassador in Vienna (1858–60) and as envoy in Berlin (1860–62) and then in Munich. He was then ambassador to Prussia (1866–68), the North German Confederation (1868–1871) and the Russian Empire (1871–1879). There he took an important part in the negotiations between England and Russia that preceded the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish War . Removed from his diplomatic post in Saint Petersburg , he held the post of Governor of New South Wales (Australia) from 1879 to 1885 .

In 1866 he was raised to the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath .

Publications (selection)

• Reports from Prussia to the British Government (February – August 1866)
• The diplomatic reminiscences of Lord Augustus Loftus 1837–1879 , 4 volumes, London 1892–94

literature

• Augustus Loftus . In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon . 6th edition. Volume 12, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1908, p.  656 .
• Adolphus William Ward : Loftus, Augustus William Frederick Spencer , in: Dictionary of National Biography , Supplemente von 1912, Vol. 2, pp. 475 ff.

Web links

• Entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography
• [1]

predecessor	Office	successor
Sir George Hamilton Seymour	British ambassador in Vienna 1858–1860	John Bloomfield, 2nd Baron Bloomfield
John Bloomfield, 2nd Baron Bloomfield	British envoy in Berlin 1860–1862	Sir Andrew Buchanan
Lord Francis Napier	British ambassador in Berlin 1866–1868	-
George Vane-Tempest, 5th Marquess of Londonderry	British ambassador to Saint Petersburg 1871–1879	Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava