Rumbold, Horace, Sir, 8th Baronet (1829 -1913)

Horace Rumbold was the fourth son of Sir William Rumbold, 3rd Baronet (1787–1833), and Henrietta Elizabeth Parkyns (1789–1830). He was educated privately in Paris, and was introduced into the diplomatic service by Lord Palmerston in 1849. He was posted the same year as attaché to Turin (then the capital of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont) and subsequently served at Paris, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Vienna, and Ragusa. In March 1859 he went as secretary of the legation in China. The minister, Frederick Bruce, sent him back to England in January 1860 to report to the British government on the resistance to the progress of the British mission in Beijing. The report led to the Anglo-French Expedition, the second phase of the Second Opium War. Rumbold then held a succession of further posts as secretary of legation or embassy in Athens, Bern, St Petersburg, and Constantinople. He then became Minister to Chile (1872–1878), to the Swiss Confederation (1878–1879), to Argentina (1879–1881), to Sweden and Norway (1881–1884), to Greece (1884–1888), to the Netherlands (1888–1896), and finally Ambassador to Austria (1896–1900). He married firstly, Caroline Burney Harrington (d. 1872); and secondly Louisa Anne (d. 1940), daughter of Thomas Russell Crampton. His son Horace also became a diplomat, and succeeded him as 9th Baronet.