1. Sir Hughe Montgomery Knatchbull-Hugessen was a British diplomat, civil servant and author.
11 Facts About Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen
1. 2.
Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen is best remembered as the diplomat whose secrets were stolen by his Kosovar Albanian valet and passed on to Nazi Germany.
3.
Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen was the second son of Reverend Reginald Bridges Knatchbull-Hugessen, son of Sir Edward Knatchbull, 9th Baronet, and his second wife Rachel Mary, daughter of Admiral Sir Alexander Montgomery, 3rd Baronet.
4.
Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen soon obtained the chance of the paid post of an attache and in October 1909 he went to Constantinople.
5.
In 1931 Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Republics of Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia until 1934; he was stationed at Riga, Latvia.
6.
Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1936 New Year Honours and was sent to China as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.
7.
Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen was first hospitalised in Shanghai and then invalided home to Britain.
8.
From December 1942, Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen was ordered to begin putting pressure to get Turkey into the Allied fold.
9.
In 1943, Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen oversaw secret talks with diplomats from the Hungarian Embassy who wanted to sign an armistice with Britain.
10.
On 9 September 1943, aboard a yacht in the Sea of Marmara, Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen concluded a preliminary armistice agreement with Laszlo Veress, an official of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
11.
Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen retired three years later in 1947 to his home near Canterbury.