Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Austria
What was the position of Eric Phipps from 1928 to 1933?
Eric Phipps Sir Eric Clare Edmund Phipps ( 27 October 1875 – 13 August 1945 ) was a British diplomat . Family . Phipps was the son of Sir Constantine Phipps , later British Ambassador to Belgium , and his wife , Maria Jane ( née Miller Mundy ) . Henry Phipps , 1st Earl of Mulgrave , was his great-grandfather , and he was also a great-grandson of Lieutenant-General Sir Colin Campbell , who was present at the Battle of Waterloo , and of Rear-Admiral Sir John Hindmarsh , who was a Lieutenant on HMS Phoebe at the Battle of Trafalgar . Early life and career . As a child , he accompanied his parents around Europe to his fathers various postings . He was educated at Kings College , Cambridge , and the University of Paris , from which he graduated . He passed the competitive examination for entry to the Diplomatic Service in January 1899 and was posted as an attaché to Paris in October 1899 , being promoted Third Secretary in January 1901 . In January 1905 he was posted to Constantinople , was promoted Second Secretary in April and returned to London to work at the Foreign Office in September . In September 1906 , he was posted to Rome and in February 1909 , he returned to Paris as private secretary to Sir Francis Bertie , British Ambassador to France . In April 1912 , he was promoted First Secretary and posted to St Petersburg , transferred to Madrid in October 1913 . He returned to Paris in May 1916 . He was on the staff of the British delegation to the Versailles Conference until September 1919 , when he was promoted to counsellor and posted back to London . In November 1920 , he was posted to Brussels as chargé daffaires , and in November 1922 , he was promoted to minister plenipotentiary and posted back to Paris , often serving as chargé daffaires in the absence of the ambassador . In June 1928 , Phipps received his first independent posting as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Austria . Ambassador to Germany . In 1933 , he was appointed British Ambassador to Germany . To some extent , he followed policies later known as appeasement , as he believed that the League of Nations was the key to preventing the next war . He tried to enlist the French in efforts to get the Germans to co-operate . However , in some despatches , he warned the British government about the character of the régime . On 31 January 1934 , he told his Foreign Secretary : [ Hitlers ] policy is simple and straightforward . If his neighbours allow him , he will become strong by the simplest and most direct methods . The mere fact that he is making himself unpopular abroad will not deter him , for , as he said in a recent speech , it is better to be respected and feared than to be weak and liked . If he finds that he arouses no real opposition , the tempo of his advance will increase . On the other hand , if he is vigorously opposed , he is unlikely at this stage to risk a break . Phipps gave a further warning on 1 April 1935 of Germanys growing military strength : Let us hope our pacifists at home may at length realise that the rapidly-growing monster of German militarism will not be placated by mere cooings , but will only be restrained from recourse to its ultima ratio by the knowledge that the Powers who desire peace are also strong enough to enforce it . During his first year in Berlin , Phipps managed to see Hitler only four times . Phipps himself regarded Hitler as something of a cipher or enigma ; Hitler was variously described in his dispatches back to London as more moderate than his followers or as possibly mad . In May 1936 , Phipps presented to Hitler the famous questionnaire , largely written by his brother-in-law , the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs , Sir Robert Vansittart , that asked point-blank if Germany intended to respect the existing territorial and political status of Europe and was willing to sign genuine treaties . Neither Hitler nor any other German leader ever responded to the questionnaire . Ambassador to France . In 1937 , Phipps was transferred to Paris as British Ambassador to France . During his time in Paris , Phipps strongly identified himself with French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet , and most of his dispatches to London reflected Bonnets influence . On 24 September 1938 , at the height of the great crisis over Czechoslovakia that was to culminate in the Munich Agreement , Phipps reported back to London all that is best in France is against war , almost at any price , but it was opposed by a small , but noisy and corrupt , war group . Phippss negative assessment of the willingness and ability of France to go to war with Germany in 1938 created doubts in London about the value of France as an ally . In October 1938 , Bonnet carried out a purge of the Quai dOrsay , sidelining a number of officials opposed to his policy . In the aftermath of the purge , Bonnet was congratulated by Phipps for removing the warmongers René Massigli and Pierre Comert from the Quai dOrsay , but he went on to complain that Bonnet should have sacked Secretary-General Alexis Saint-Legér Léger as well . In response , Bonnet claimed that he and Saint-Legér Léger saw eye to eye . Phipps , who knew about the state of relations between the two , drily noted that in that case the eyes must be astigmatic . In November 1939 , suffering from ill-health , Phipps retired to Wiltshire . He died of a pulmonary embolism following a prostatectomy at the London Clinic in 1945 . Honours . Phipps was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George ( CMG ) in the 1920 New Year Honours , Commander of the Royal Victorian Order ( CVO ) in May 1922 , Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George ( KCMG ) in the 1927 Birthday Honours , Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George ( GCMG ) in 1934 , Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order ( GCVO ) in 1939 , and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath ( GCB ) in 1941 . He was appointed to the Privy Council in 1933 , entitling him to the style The Right Honourable . He also held the Grand Cross of the Legion dHonneur and was a Commander of the Order of Leopold II of Belgium . In 1943 he served as High Sheriff of Wiltshire . Family . Phipps married Yvonne de Louvencourt in 1907 . After her death in 1909 he married Frances Ward , daughter of the sculptor Herbert Ward , in 1911 . He had six children , all by his second wife : 1 . Lieutenant-Colonel Mervyn Phipps ( 1912–1983 ) 2 . Lieutenant Alan Phipps RN ( 1915–1942 ; killed in action on Leros ) , whose son is Major-General Jeremy Phipps 3 . Mary Phipps ( born 1923 ) , married to Bonar Sykes , son of Sir Frederick Sykes and his wife , a daughter of former British Prime Minister Bonar Law 4 . Margaret Phipps ( born 1925 ) , married to George Cary , son of the Irish novelist Joyce Cary 5 . John-Francis Phipps ( born 1933 ) 6 . William Phipps ( 1936–2009 ) , who married Henrietta Frances Lamb ( 1931–2016 ) , elder daughter of the painter Henry Lamb and his wife Lady Pansy Lamb ( née Pakenham ) , sister of the 6th and 7th Earls of Longford Sources . - Adamthwaite , Anthony . France and the Coming of the Second World War 1936–1939 . London : Frank Cass , 1977 . . - Kidd , Charles , Williamson , David ( editors ) . Debretts Peerage and Baronetage ( 1990 edition ) . New York : St Martins Press , 1990 . - Herman , John . The Paris Embassy of Sir Eric Phipps , Sussex Academic Press , 1998 . - Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . - Watt , D.C . How War Came : The Immediate Origins of the Second World War , 1938–1939 . New York : Pantheon Books , 1989 . .