William Arthur White

Who was William Arthur White?

Sir William Arthur White PC, GCB, GCMG was a British diplomat, born in Puławy, in Poland.

He was descended on his father's side from an Irish Roman Catholic family. His mother's family, though not of Polish extraction, owned considerable estates in Poland, where White, though educated at King William's College, Isle of Man, and Trinity College, Cambridge, spent a great part of his early days, and thus gained an intimate knowledge of the Polish language.

From 1843 to 1857 he lived in Poland as a country gentleman, but in the latter year he accepted a post in the British consulate in Warsaw, and had almost at once to perform the duties of acting consul-general. The January Uprising in 1863 gave him an opportunity of showing his immense knowledge of Eastern politics and his combination of diplomatic tact with resolute determination. He was promoted in 1864 to the post of consul at Danzig. The Eastern Question was, however, the great passion of his life, and in 1875 he succeeded in getting transferred to Belgrade as Agent and Consul-General to Serbia.

In 1878 he was made British Agent at Bucharest. In 1884 he was offered by Lord Granville the choice of the legation at Rio de Janeiro or Buenos Aires, and in 1885 Lord Salisbury, who was then at the Foreign Office, urged him to go to Peking, pointing out the increasing importance of that post. White's devoted friend, Sir Robert Morier, wrote in the same sense. But White, who was already acting as ambassador ad interim at Constantinople, decided to wait; and during this year he rendered one of his most conspicuous services.