Reginald Hoare


Sir Reginald Hervey Hoare KCMG was a British diplomat and banker.

Early life

Hoare was born on 19 July 1882 at Minley Manor in Hampshire. Rex, as he was known, was the fourth son, in a family of four sons and three daughters, of Katharine Patience Georgiana Hervey and Charles Hoare, senior partner of C. Hoare & Co. His maternal grandparents were the former Patience Singleton and Lord Arthur Hervey, the Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1869 to 1894.
Through his father, he was a descendant of King Henry VII.
Hoare was educated at Eton College.

Career

After joining the diplomatic service in 1905, he served as diplomat to Bucharest, Constantinople, Rome, Cairo, Peking, and Petrograd. While in Russia, he replaced Francis Oswald Lindley and served under British consul, Douglas Young.
In 1931, he became Envoy Extraordinary and Minister plenipotentiary to Persia in Tehran, serving until 1934. In 1934, he was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister plenipotentiary to Romania and began serving in 1935. Following King Carol's abdication in 1940, Hoare was withdrawn from Romania in 1941; he retired in 1942. Upon his exit from Rumania, the Italian newspaper Il Giornale d'Italia wrote:
"Hoare goes without leaving any regret. On the contrary, if anything follows his flight it will be the maledictions of the widows and orphans of Rumanian workers whose lives were barbarously and uselessly sacrificed in the numerous and disastrous attempts at acts of sabotage carried out in the oil fields by British agents working under the personal direction of Hoare."

After his retirement from the government, he joined C. Hoare & Co., the family bank as a partner in 1944.

Personal life

In 1922, he married Lucy Joan Cavendish-Bentinck, the elder daughter of William George Frederick Cavendish-Bentinck and Ruth Cavendish Bentinck. Lucy's grandfathers were Ferdinand Seymour, Earl St. Maur and the Rt. Hon. George Cavendish-Bentinck. Lucy's brothers, Ferdinand and Victor, were the 8th and 9th Duke of Portland, respectively. Together, Reginald and Lucy were the parents of one child:
He lived at Pine Crest in Hawley and at 80 Harley House on Marylebone Road in London. Sir Reginald died in London on 12 August 1954.