Victor Mallet

Sir Victor Mallet GCMG CVO (9 April 1893 – 18 May 1969) was a British diplomat and author.

Victor Mallet (left) together with Swedish Foreign Minister Christian Günther, 12 May 1945.

Career

Victor Alexander Louis Mallet was educated at Winchester College and Balliol College, Oxford. In 1914 he joined the Cambridgeshire Regiment and served during World War I with the British Expeditionary Force and later in Ireland, reaching the rank of Captain. He joined the Diplomatic Service in 1919[1] and held posts in Tehran 1919–22 and 1933–35, Buenos Aires 1926–28, Brussels 1929–32, Washington D.C. 1936–39 and in the Foreign Office 1922–26 and 1932. He was Envoy to Sweden 1940–45 during World War II[2] and Ambassador to Spain 1945–46[3] and to Italy 1947–53.[4]

Family

Victor Mallet was son of Sir Bernard Mallet and his wife Marie, daughter of Henry John Adeane by his wife, Lady Elizabeth Yorke, daughter of the 4th Earl of Hardwicke. His mother was a Maid of Honour to Queen Victoria and he was godson to the Queen. His book Life with Queen Victoria, a record of his mother's letters written during her service, was published in 1968.

He married Christiana Jean Andreae, daughter of Herman Anton Andreae, of Moundsmere Manor, in Hampshire, and his wife, Christiana Candida (née Ahrens) in 1925; they had three sons and a daughter, Anne Marie, who married Patrick Butler, 18th/28th Baron Dunboyne in 1950.

Publications

• Life with Queen Victoria: Marie Mallet's Letters from Court, 1887-1901 (editor), John Murray, London, 1968. ISBN 0719517834

Honours

Victor Mallet was appointed CMG in the New Year Honours of 1934[5] and CVO in 1939.[6] He was knighted KCMG in the New Year Honours of 1944[7] and raised to GCMG in the Queen's Birthday Honours of 1952.[8]

Ancestry

Mallet's father's family was primarily of gentry and civil service classes. His mother's family was aristocratic, including prominent historical figures and MPs. Through Marie Adeane's maternal line great-great-grand-mother Lady Anne Lyon, he was a fifth cousin of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother; their most recent common ancestors were Thomas Lyon, 8th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne and Jean Nicholsen, his wife.

Ancestors of Victor Mallet

16. Jacques Mallet du Pan 8. John Lewis Mallet 4. Sir Louis Mallet 2. Sir Bernard Mallet 40. Samuel Pellew 20. Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth 41. Constantia Langford 10. Edward William Pellew 42. James Frowde, Esq. 21. Susan Frowde 5. Frances Helen Pellew 44. Benjamin Winthrop 22. Stephen John Winthrop 45. Elizabeth Neale 11. Marianne Winthrop 46. Gamaliel Lloyd 23. Mary Horton Lloyd 47. Elizabeth Attwood 1. Sir Victor Mallet 48. James Whorwood Adeane, MP 24. Robert Jones Adeane of Babraham, Cambridgeshire 49. Anne Jones, dau. of Robert Jones 12. Henry John Adeane, MP 50. Sir Patrick Blake, 1st Baronet, MP 25. Annabella Blake 51. Annabella Bunbury, dau. of Rev. Sir William Bunbury, 5th Baronet 6. Henry John Adeane, MP 52. Sir John Thomas Stanley, 6th Baronet 26. John Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley 53. Margaret Owen, dau. of Hugh Owen of Penrhos 13. Matilda Abigail Stanley 54 John Baker Holroyd, 1st Earl of Sheffield 27. Hon. Maria Josepha Holroyd 55 Abigail Way, dau. of Lewis Way of Richmond, Surrey 3. Marie Adeane 56. Charles Yorke, Lord Chancellor 28. Joseph Sydney Yorke, First Sea Lord 57. Agneta Johnson 14. Charles Yorke, 4th Earl of Hardwicke 58. James Rattray, of Ireland 29. Elizabeth Weake Rattray 7. Lady Elizabeth Yorke 60. Sir Henry Liddell, 5th Baronet 30. Thomas Liddell, 1st Baron Ravensworth 61. Elizabeth Steele, dau. of Thomas Steele of Hampsnett 15. Hon. Susan Liddell 62. John Simpson, of Bradley Hall 31. Maria Susannah Simpson 126. Thomas Lyon, 8th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne 63. Lady Anne Lyon 127. Jean Nicholsen, dau. of James Nicholson of W. Rainton

References

• MALLET, Sir Victor Alexander Louis, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2012
• The Papers of Sir Victor Mallet, Churchill Archives Centre, University of Cambridge
• Sir Victor Mallet (obituary), The Times, London, 19 May 1969, page 10

1. "No. 37278". The London Gazette. 2 May 1919. p. 4707.
2. "No. 34831". The London Gazette. 16 April 1940. p. 2240.
3. "No. 37278". The London Gazette. 21 September 1945. p. 4707.
4. "No. 38192". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 January 1948. p. 742.
5. "No. 34010". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 1934. p. 6.
6. "No. 34641". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 June 1939. p. 4435.
7. "No. 36309". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 1944. p. 6.
8. "No. 39555". The London Gazette (Supplement). 5 June 1952. p. 3011.

External links

• Portraits of Sir Victor Alexander Louis Mallet at the National Portrait Gallery, London
• "Archival material relating to Mallet, Sir Victor Alexander Louis (1893-1969) Knight Diplomat". UK National Archives.

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Sir Edmund Monson, 3rd Baronet	Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to His Majesty the King of Sweden 1939–1945	Succeeded by Sir Bertrand Jerram
Preceded by Samuel Hoare, 1st Viscount Templewood	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary at Madrid 1945–1946	Succeeded by Sir Douglas Howard
Preceded by Sir Noel Charles	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary at Rome 1947–1953	Succeeded by Sir Ashley Clarke