Robert Adair (politician)
Sir Robert Adair GCB (24 May 1763 – 3 October 1855) was a distinguished British diplomat, and frequently employed on the most important diplomatic missions.
Sir Robert Adair | |
|---|---|
 | |
| British Ambassador to Belgium | |
| In office 1831–1835 | |
| Monarch | William IV |
| Preceded by | John Ponsonby |
| Succeeded by | Stratford Canning |
| British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire | |
| In office 1808–1809 | |
| Preceded by | Sir Arthur Paget |
| Succeeded by | Henry Bulwer |
| British Ambassador to Austria | |
| In office 1806–1807 | |
| Monarch | George III |
| Prime Minister | William Cavendish-Bentinck |
| Preceded by | Sir Arthur Paget |
| Succeeded by | George Herbert |
| Member of Parliament for Camelford | |
| In office 1802–1812 | |
| Preceded by | William Joseph Denison |
| Succeeded by | John Angerstein |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 24 May 1763 |
| Died | 3 October 1855 (aged 92) |
| Political party | Whig |
| Spouse |
Angélique Gabrielle (m. 1805) |
| Alma mater | Westminster School University of Göttingen |
He was the son of Robert Adair, sergeant-surgeon to George III, and Lady Caroline Keppel, daughter of Willem Anne van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle. He was educated at Westminster School and the University of Göttingen, and then studied law at Lincoln's Inn, but hardly practised as a barrister.
He hoped to gain office as Under-secretary of State to Charles James Fox, but he was in opposition. Following the French Revolution, he travelled in Europe, visiting Berlin, Vienna, and St Petersburg to study the effects of the revolution and equip himself for a diplomatic career.
He became Whig Member of Parliament (MP) for Appleby (1799–1802) and Camelford (1802–12).
In 1805, he made a disastrous marriage to Angélique Gabrielle, daughter of the marquis de l'Escuyer d'Hazincourt (known as ‘Talleyrand's spy’), but this kept him out of office when Fox returned to government. Instead Fox sent him to Vienna. In June 1808, George Canning transferred him to Constantinople. He was created a KCB in that year for his services there. He was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1828.
He was employed in Belgium from 1831 to 1835, where he succeeded in preventing a war between Belgium and The Netherlands. This exploit won for him the rank of GCB and a pension of £2000 per year from 1831, and also the grand'cross of the Belgian order of Leopold in 1835. He then visited Prussia. In the 1840s, he published memoirs of his diplomatic activities in the 1800s.
References
- W. P. Courtney, 'Adair, Sir Robert (1763–1855)', rev. H. C. G. Matthew, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, January 2008) [1]
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , accessed 23 September 2008