The Right Honourable The Lord Inverchapel GCMG PC |
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Archibald Clark Kerr (middle) at the Potsdam Conference in 1945
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Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary at Washington | |
In office 1946–1948 |
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Monarch | George VI |
President | Harry Truman |
Prime Minister | Clement Attlee |
Preceded by | The Viscount Halifax |
Succeeded by | Oliver Franks |
Personal details | |
Born | 17 March 1882 |
Died | 5 July 1951 (aged 69) |
Archibald Clark Kerr, 1st Baron Inverchapel GCMG PC (17 March 1882, Australia – 5 July 1951), known as Sir Archibald Clark Kerr between 1935 and 1946, was a British diplomat. He served as Ambassador to the Soviet Union between 1942 and 1946 and to the United States between 1946 and 1948.
An Australian-born Scot, Clark Kerr was born Archibald John Kerr Clark, the son of John Kerr Clark and Kate Louisa, daughter of Sir John Struan Robertson. In 1911 he assumed the surname of Kerr in addition to that of Clark. He attended Bath College from 1892 to 1900.
Clark Kerr entered the Foreign Service in 1906. Early on, he made the mistake of challenging the Foreign Office over its Egyptian policy. Consequently, he found himself posted to a series of capitals in Latin America. He was Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to various Central American republics between 1925 and 1928, to Chile between 1928 and 1930, to Sweden between 1931 and 1934 and to Iraq between 1935 and 1938.
He distinguished himself enough in these posts to secure a prestigious appointment as Ambassador to China between 1938 and 1942 during the Japanese occupation. In the ensuing years, he developed a close relationship with Nationalist Chinese leader Chiang Kai-Shek and spent most of his posting explaining why Britain could not offer him any substantive aid in his struggle against the Japanese invaders.