John Hall Magowan

John Hall Magowan (born October 5, 1893 in Tullyherron, Mountnorris, † April 5, 1951 in Rostrevor) was a British diplomat. He officiated a. a. as British ambassador to Venezuela (1948–1951).

Life and activity

Magowan was a son of William Hall Magowan and his wife Sara Ann, née Irvine. After attending school at the Royal School in Armagh , he studied Modern Languages ​​at Trinity College in Dublin from 1911 . From 1915 to 1918 he took part in the First World War with the Royal Field Artillery and the Intelligence Corps. In 1917 he reached the rank of lieutenant. Until 1919 he was a member of the British army of occupation on the Rhine.

In 1919 Magowan entered the British Diplomatic Service. At first he was deployed as vice consul in Hamburg and Bremerhaven . From 1924 to 1929 Magowan then acted as consul for the Saar region and the Bavarian Palatinate with his office in Mainz . In the years 1929 to 1931 he was then employed as a British Chargé d'Affairs and consul in Haiti with an official seat in Port au Prince .

From 1931 to 1934 Magowan was a member of the staff of the British Embassy in Washington, DC as Commercial Secretary.In 1935 to 1937, he was a Commercial Secretary at the British Embassy in Berlin and then from 1937 to 1939 the same Embassy as a Commercial Councilor (Commercial Counselor). He returned to Great Britain after the outbreak of World War II. Until 1940 he was employed in the British Treasury. He then served from 1940 to 1942 as Deputy Inspector General of the Office for the Guarantee of Export Credits (Deputy Comptroller General 'Export Credits Guarantee Department).

Due to his activity in Berlin, Magowan came under the sights of the National Socialist police officers at the end of the 1930s, who classified him as an important target: In the spring of 1940 the Reich Security Main Office in Berlin put him on the special wanted list GB , a directory of people who were to be found in the event of a successful invasion and Occupation of the British Isles by the Wehrmacht should be located and arrested by the occupation troops following special SS commandos with special priority.

From 1942 to 1948 Magowan then acted as commercial advisor to the British Ambassador in Washington DC. In 1946 he was knighted.

Magowan's career peaked in 1948 when he was appointed British Ambassador to Venezuela. He remained in this post until his death during a home stay in Northern Ireland in 1951. Shortly before his death, he was appointed ambassador to Siam .

He was buried in Mountnorris.

family

On June 22, 1917, he married Winifred Isabel, b. Titterington Ray, at Rathfarnham Church in Dublin. Both had a daughter, Anna Isabel Magowan (born June 20, 1922) and two sons William Andrew (born September 5, 1921) and David (born July 16, 1928).

literature

• Who was who: A Companion to Who's Who, Containing the Biographies of Those who Died During the Period , 1961, p. 724.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Entry on Magowan on the special wanted list GB (reproduced on the website of the Imperial War Museum in Berlin).