Succeeded by Sir Ronald Campbell Children Roxana Lampson Education Eton College | Name Miles 1st Preceded by Sir Percy Loraine | |
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Preceded by Himself (as UK High Commissioner) Succeeded by Himself (as UK Ambassador) Full Name Miles Wedderburn Lampson Died September 18, 1964, Hastings, United Kingdom Grandchildren Liberty Ross, Atticus Ross, Leopold Ross Great grandchildren Skyla Sanders, Tennyson Sanders Similar People Liberty Ross, Atticus Ross, Oliver Locker‑Lampson, Robert Whitehead | ||
Miles Wedderburn Lampson, 1st Baron Killearn (24 August 1880 – 18 September 1964) was a British diplomat.
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Background and education
Miles Lampson was the son of Norman Lampson, and grandson of Sir Curtis Lampson, 1st Baronet. His mother was Helen, daughter of Peter Blackburn, MP for Stirlingshire. He was educated at Eton.
Diplomatic career
Lampson entered the Foreign Office in 1903. He served as Secretary to Garter Mission, Japan, in 1906, as 2nd Secretary at Tokyo, Japan, between 1908 and 1910, as 2nd Secretary at Sofia, Bulgaria in 1911, as 1st Secretary at Peking in 1916, as Acting British High Commissioner in Siberia in 1920 and as British Minister to China between 1926 and 1933. In 1934 he was appointed High Commissioner for Egypt and the Sudan. As a result of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty in December 1936 Britain loosened its grip on Egypt the post title was changed to Ambassador to Egypt and High Commissioner for the Sudan in 1936. Lampson continued in this office until 1946. As ambassador to Egypt he forced King Farouk I to change the cabinet to a wafdist one through surrounding the king's palace with tanks. He was then Special Commissioner in Southeast Asia between 1946 and 1948. He was admitted to the Privy Council in 1941 and raised to the peerage as Baron Killearn, of Killearn in the County of Stirling, on 17 May 1943. He was also awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon of Japan and the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon of Japan.
Family
Lord Killearn married firstly Rachel, daughter of William Wilton Phipps, in 1912. They had one son and two daughters:
After Rachel's death in 1930 he married secondly Jacqueline Aldine Leslie Castellani (1910-2015), daughter of Aldo Castellani, KCMG (Hon.), in 1934. They had one son and two daughters:
Lampson was a close personal friend of Sir Edward Peel.
Succession
Lord Killearn died in September 1964, aged 84, and was succeeded in the barony by his son by his first marriage, Graham. As Graham died without male heirs, the title subsequently passed to Lord Killearn's son from his second marriage, Victor.
The 3rd Lord Killearn took legal action in 2011 to prevent his mother selling off the family home, Haremere Hall.