Cecil Spring-Rice
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Sir Cecil Spring-Rice (1859 - 1918) was a British diplomat.
Spring-Rice was the British ambassador to the United States from 1912 to 1918. He died in Ottawa shortly after his retirement. He wrote the text for the hymn I Vow to Thee My Country after being fired by the British government in a one-line telegram.
Spring-Rice had earned the enmity of his government after becoming paranoid - seeing German spies everywhere - and also because of his immense dislike of any British visitors to Washington that were not under the control of his embassy.
The US found him obstructive and his description of Woodrow Wilson as a "mysterious personage" doesn't suggest a particularly close relationship. In private life he had been a good friend of President Theodore Roosevelt about whom he memorably remarked "You must remember that the president is about six". However he seems to have been unable to turn these earlier close links to the administration to a relationship of use to his government.
Before serving in Washington he had been British Ambassador to Iran.
| Preceded by: James Bryce | British Ambassador to the United States 1913-1918 | Followed by: Rufus Isaacs, 1st Earl of Reading |