10 Facts About William Seeds

Sir William Seeds KCMG was a British diplomat who served as ambassador to both the Soviet Union and Brazil.

William Seeds was the only son of Robert Seeds, of Rutland Square, Dublin, QC, the Queen's Advocate General, and Ada Charlotte, daughter of John Le Mottee, of Le Vanquiedou, a Jurat of Guernsey.

William Seeds was educated at Rugby School and was proficient in French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian.

William Seeds grew to love "the real old Russia like a story or play by Chekhov" On his return from Russia he studied in London to enter the diplomatic service whilst fully enjoying the many entertainments that Edwardian London nightlife had to offer.

William Seeds was Charge d'Affaires and British Consulate General in Lisbon, Portugal, and Charge d'Affaires and First Secretary in Berlin, Germany, in 1919.

William Seeds was appointed Consul General for Bavaria in November 1920 and transferred to Munich.

In 1928 William Seeds became British High Commissioner for the Rhineland in Koblenz, and during his tenure of the post, he was mainly occupied in the arrangements for the evacuation.

William Seeds married first, in 1934, Sir John Fisher Wentworth Dilke, 5th Baronet, and had two sons, who each succeeded to the baronetcy.

William Seeds's elder son, Charles, was a Catholic priest at the Brompton Oratory, and died unmarried and without issue.

William Seeds died peacefully in his home in St John's Wood, London at the age of 91 on 2 November 1973 and was buried in the William Seeds family graveyard in Derriaghy, Lisburn, Northern Ireland.