William Conyngham Greene

Sir William Conyngham Greene, (29 October 1854 – 30 June 1934) was a British diplomat who served as minister to Switzerland, Romania and Denmark, and as ambassador to Japan. Early life William Conyngham Greene was born in Dublin, Ireland, son of Richard Jonas Greene, barrister and writer, and the Hon. Louisa Plunket, also a writer; his grandfathers were the eminent judge Richard Wilson Greene and John Plunket, 3rd Baron Plunket. He was named after his uncle William Greene, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, but did not use the name William as an adult. He was educated at Harrow School and Pembroke College, Oxford. Career Greene entered the Foreign Office in 1877, was posted as Acting Third Secretary to Athens in 1880, and acted as Chargé d'Affaires at Stuttgart and Darmstadt 1883–87. He transferred formally to the Diplomatic Service (then separate from the Foreign Service) in 1877 and was posted as 2nd Secretary at The Hague 1889–91 and at Brussels 1891–93. He was then promoted to be Secretary of Legation at Tehran in 1893 and promoted again to be "HM Agent at Pretoria with rank of Chargé d'Affaires" in 1896. Pretoria was then the capital of the Transvaal Republic, and on 9 October 1899 the Transvaal government handed to Conyngham Greene an ultimatum stating that if in 48 hours British troops did not retire from the border, a state of war would exist. The British government replied that the conditions imposed by the Transvaal were such that the British government could no longer discuss the subject, and the Second Boer War began on 11 October. On that day Conyngham Greene left Pretoria, and on his arrival at Cape Town a few days later he "was accorded a magnificent reception. A crowd of 3,000 persons who had gathered sang 'Rule, Britannia' and 'God Save the Queen'".