Edwin Henry Egerton


Sir Edwin Henry Egerton, was a British diplomat who was envoy to Greece and ambassador to Spain and Italy.

Career

Edwin Egerton was educated at Eton College, and joined the Diplomatic Service in 1859 as an attaché at St Petersburg. He was Secretary of Legation at Buenos Aires 1879–1881 and at Athens 1881–85; Consul-General in Egypt 1884–85; Secretary of Embassy at Constantinople in 1885 and at Paris during 1885–86; Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Greece 1892–1903; Ambassador to Spain 1903–04 and Ambassador to Italy 1905–08.
During his time in Paris, Egerton was trained by Richard Lyons, 1st Viscount Lyons, who was then British Ambassador to France. Egerton was a member of the Tory-sympathetic 'Lyons School' of British diplomacy.
When Egerton retired in 1908, The Times correspondent in Rome wrote:

Honours

Egerton was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1886, and knighted as a Knight Commander of the same order in 1897. He received the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1902 Coronation Honours list published on 26 June 1902, and was invested as such by King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on 8 August 1902.

Family

Edwin Egerton was a son of the Rev. Thomas Egerton and Charlotte Catherine, daughter of Sir William Milner, 4th Baronet.
He was a grandson of Wilbraham Egerton and a nephew of William Egerton, 1st Baron Egerton.
He married in 1895 Olga, daughter of Prince Nicholas Lobanov-Rostovsky of Lobanovo, Russia, and widow of M. Michel Katkoff who had been Russian Secretary of Legation at Lisbon. They had one son, John Frederick, who was killed in the First World War.