Cecil Spring-Rice

Cecil Spring-Rice

Sir Cecil Arthur Spring-Rice GCMG GCVO (born February 27, 1859 in London , † February 14, 1918 in Ottawa ) was a British diplomat.

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Spring-Rice was born in 1859 to Thomas William Spring Rice. His grandfather was the former British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Baron Thomas Spring Rice . After attending the elite school Eton and studying at Balliol College of Oxford University Spring-Rice went to the British diplomatic service. Spring-Rice assumed a first higher position in 1900 with the office of British Chargé d'Affaires in Tehran. He then served as the British Debt Commissioner in Cairo (1901) and Chargé d'Affaires in Saint Petersburg (1903).

After heading the British legations in Persia (1906) and Sweden (1908), he was appointed British ambassador to the United States in 1913 as the successor to James Bryce . In Washington, DC , after the outbreak of the First World War , Spring-Rice tried to compete with the German ambassador Count Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff to influence the American government in favor of the Entente powers entering the war.

In 1918, Spring-Rice was finally removed from his post and replaced by Rufus Isaacs due to growing differences with his home government and signs of paranoia affecting his ability to work .

He is the author of the patriotic poem I Vow to Thee, My Country , which, with the tune of Gustav Holst, became one of the most famous patriotic songs in Britain and the Commonwealth .

predecessor	Office	successor
Evelyn Mountstuart Grant Duff	British ambassador to Persia 1906–1908	George Head Barclay
Rennell Rodd	British envoy to Sweden 1908–1912	Esme Howard
James Bryce	British Ambassador to the United States 1912–1918	Rufus Isaacs