26 Facts About Eyre Crowe

Eyre Crowe is best known for his vehement warning, in 1907, that Germany's expansionism was motivated by animosity towards Britain and should provoke a closer Entente Cordiale between the British Empire and France.

At the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, Crowe worked with the French President Georges Clemenceau.

Eyre Crowe was educated at Dusseldorf, at Berlin, and in France.

Eyre Crowe's father, Joseph Archer Crowe, was a British Consul-General and Chief European Commercial Attache between 1882 and 1896, and an art historian.

Eyre Crowe's grandfather Eyre Evans Crowe was a journalist and historian, and his uncle, Eyre Crowe, was an artist.

Eyre Crowe first visited England in 1882, when he was seventeen, to cram for the Foreign Office examination.

Eyre Crowe entered the Foreign Office in 1885 and until 1895 was resident clerk.

Eyre Crowe served as assistant to Clement Lloyd Hill in the African Protectorates' Department, but when responsibility for the protectorates was handed over to the Colonial Office he was asked to reform the registry system.

Eyre Crowe's success led to his appointment as senior clerk in the Western Department in 1906, and in January 1907 he produced an unsolicited Memorandum on the Present State of British Relations with France and Germany for the Foreign Office.

Eyre Crowe stated that Germany presented a threat to the balance of power in Europe similar to the threat posed by Philip II of Spain, the Bourbons and Napoleon.

Eyre Crowe further argued Britain should never give in to Germany's demands since:.

Eyre Crowe is cantankerous about Cyprus and will not allow me even to mention the subject.

Whilst Eyre Crowe had been an implacable opponent of appeasement towards Germany, he doubted the French government's motives and sincerity at the Paris Peace Conference, regarding the French as more interested in revenge than a lasting peace.

Eyre Crowe regarded the League of Nations Mandates over Danzig, with Polish ownership of a German-populated city, as a 'house of cards that would not stand'.

Eyre Crowe thought that the balance of power and the considerations of national interest would determine how individual states decided their future actions.

Eyre Crowe argued that boycotts and blockades, as advocated by the League of Nations, would not be of any use: "It is all a question of real military preponderance" in numbers, cohesion, efficiency and geographical location of each state.

Eyre Crowe was Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office from 1920 until his death in 1925.

Eyre Crowe was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1907, Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1911, Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1917, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1920 New Year Honours, and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in the 1923 Birthday Honours.

In 1903, Eyre Crowe married his widowed maternal first cousin Clema Gerhardt, a niece of Henning von Holtzendorff, who was to become the Chief of the German Naval Staff in the First World War.

Eyre Crowe's mother was German, he spoke with a guttural accent and he had a mind of truly Germanic clarity and orderliness.

Eyre Crowe read a copy of every inward and outward telegram and sent his marginal notes on them by urgent box to the appropriate department.

Eyre Crowe sometimes telephoned to juniors to make known his views or his disapproval.

Eyre Crowe regarded this as a suitable holiday task for himself, and on our return from the Christmas holidays we found a 20,000-word manuscript memorandum in his inimitable limpid style.

Taylor claimed "Eyre Crowe always thought he knew better than his political superiors".

Eyre Crowe was a master of detail but interested in the broader complex of international and military relations.

Eyre Crowe is depicted as a competent and shrewd administrator but one who is exasperated and confused by the Foreign Secretary's superior diplomatic prowess.