Henry Bax-Ironside

Sir Henry George Outram Bax-Ironside, {{post-nominals|country=GBR|KCMG}} (15 November 1859 – 16 April 1929) was a British diplomat, ambassador to Venezuela, Chile, Switzerland and Bulgaria.

Career

Henry George Outram Bax was the only son of John Henry Bax, of Houghton-le-Spring, who had married Sarah Elizabeth Hughes,"England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2DQG-SM3 : 13 December 2014), John Henry Bax, 1856; from "England & Wales Marriages, 1837-2005," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing 1856, quarter 4, vol. 1A, p. 636, Marylebone, London, England, General Register Office, Southport, England. and in 1866 took the surname Bax-Ironside by royal warrant,{{London Gazette |issue=23174 |page=5527 |date=19 October 1866}} when his son became Henry Bax-Ironside. He was educated at Eton College and Exeter College, Oxford and joined the Diplomatic Service in 1883. He served in Copenhagen, Teheran, Vienna, Cairo, and Washington, D.C., and was briefly in charge of the Central American Legation in 1897 before being appointed Secretary of the Legation at Pekin in the same year.{{London Gazette |issue=26882 |page=4547 |date=13 August 1897}}

Bax-Ironside was First Secretary of the Legation at Stockholm from 1900 until late 1902,{{London Gazette |issue=27238 |page=6323 |date=16 October 1900}} when he was appointed Minister Resident and Consul-General at Carácas,{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Diplomatic appointments |date=10 September 1902 |page=7 |issue=36869}}{{London Gazette |issue=27479 |page=6273 |date=3 October 1902}} serving as such until 1907. He arrived in Venezuela in the months leading up to the Venezuelan crisis of 1902–1903, when the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy imposed a naval blockade against the country from December 1902 until February 1903. Shortly before the actual blockade, Bax-Ironside and other members of his legation were evacuated by a British warship.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Latest intelligence – Ultimatum to Venezuela |date=9 December 1902 |page=5 |issue=36946}}

He was Minister Plenipotentiary to Chile 1907–09,{{London Gazette |issue=28074 |page=7295 |date=1 November 1907}} Minister Plenipotentiary to Switzerland 1909–10,{{London Gazette |issue=28225 |page=1306 |date=19 February 1909}} and Minister Plenipotentiary to Bulgaria, 1911–15.{{London Gazette |issue=28462 |page=852 |date=1 February 1911}} While in Bulgaria he was "His Majesty's Special Envoy Extraordinary to attend the ceremonies to be held in commemoration of the coming of age of His Royal Highness Prince Boris, Prince of Tarnovo, Heir to the Throne of Bulgaria" in 1912.{{London Gazette |issue=28577 |page=797 |date=2 February 1912}}

Henry Bax-Ironside was knighted KCMG in 1911.{{London Gazette |issue=28505 |supp=y |page=4594 |date=19 June 1911}}

Family

Bad-Ironside married at St Peter and St Sigfrid's Church in Stockholm on 15 September 1902 Märtha Hedwig Jacquette Gyldenstolpe (1874–1910), daughter of Swedish nobleman and courtier Count August Gustaf Ferson Gyldenstolpe (1839–1919) and his wife Hedvig Fredrike Alice Nieroth (1850–1927).{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Marriages |date=19 September 1902 |page=1 |issue=36877}} Her brother was the ornithologist Nils Carl Gustaf Fersen Gyldenstolpe.

After the death of his first wife, in 1913, he married Fanny Agnes (Effie) Jardine, née Willoughby (1857 – c. 1931).Robert Scholes, [http://modjourn.org/render.php?view=mjp_object&id=mjp.2005.02.0037 E. A. Bax-Ironside], The Modernist Journals Project.

References

[http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U205807 BAX-IRONSIDE, Sir Henry (George Outram)], Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2016 (online edition, Oxford University Press, 2014)

{{succession box

|title=Minister Resident at Carácas

|years=1902–07

|before=William Haggard

|after=Sir Vincent Corbett

}}

{{succession box

|title=Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Chile

|years=1907–09

|before=Arthur Raikes

|after=Henry Lowther

}}