Rustem Vambery

Who was Rustem Vambery?

Born Rusztem Vámbéry, February 29, 1872 in Budapest, died October 24, 1948 in New York, he was the son of famed orientalist Armin Vambery. Edward Prince of Wales later Edward VII King of the United Kingdom was his godfather. Having studied law in Halle and Budapest, he was a judge, politician and criminologist of international standing. In Hungary, he had opposed Béla Kun's Communists and Miklós Horthy's Fascists. He lived in the U.S. from 1938, teaching at New York's New School for Social Research. He was the Hungarian ambassador to the U.S. from September 5, 1947 to May 2, 1948.