Malet Papers

FO 343

1884-1895

This series contains a collection of the private correspondence of Sir Edward Baldwin Malet as ambassador to the German court. Volumes 1 to 3 consist of letters from Queen Victoria, her daughter, Crown Princess (later the Empress) Victoria, and other royal persons; from the Queen's private secretary; from successive Secretaries of State for Foreign Affairs and officials of the Foreign Office; from members of the German Government; and from other individuals; together with occasional drafts of his replies, etc. The remaining volumes are entry books of Sir Edward's own letters to Queen Victoria and other royal persons and to Sir Henry Ponsonby and others; and to successive Secretaries of State for Foreign Affairs.

Public Record(s)

English

13 volume(s)

Available in microform only

Topics

International

Europe and Russia

Royalty

Personal and family papers

This collection was presented to the Foreign Office by Lord Rennell in 1936.

Sir Edwin Baldwin Malet PC, GCB, GCMG, 4th baronet, was born on 10 October 1837, the son of Sir Alexander Malet and Marion Dora Spalding. He was educated at Eton and Corpus Christi College Cambridge.

He entered the diplomatic service and on 10 October 1854 went to Frankfurt as attache. From then on he was consecutively promoted through the following posts: Argentine Confederation; Washington; Constantinople, where he was minister plenipotentiary at the conclusion of the Russo-Turkish War of 1878-1879; Paris, during the time of the commune; Peking; Athens; Rome; Cairo, during the British campaign of 1882; Brussels; and finally, ambassador to Germany in Berlin from 1884-1895, when he also served as British representative at the West African conference held in Berlin from October 24th 1884, and as British plenipotentiary at the Samoan conference held in April 1889.

In 1885 he married Lady Ermyntrude Sackville Russell, daughter of the 9th Duke of Bedford. Malet retired on a pension in 1895, and in 1904 he succeeded his brother to the baronetcy. He died on 29th June 1908.