Arthur James Herbert (diplomat)

Sir Arthur Herbert GCVO (22 August 1855 – 31 August 1921) was the first British envoy to Norway.

Arthur James Herbert was educated at Christ Church, Oxford and joined the Diplomatic Service in 1879. He served at Petrograd, Washington, D.C., Buenos Aires, Tehran, Brussels, Bern and . He was Consul-General at Budapest in 1902 and chargé d'affaires at Darmstadt (Hesse) and Karlsruhe (Baden) 1903–05. He received official allowances for knowledge of Russian and Persian and spoke five other languages fluently.

After the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden in 1905, Herbert was appointed the first British envoy to the newly independent Norway, with the then-customary title of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. He was the first foreign envoy to arrive in Christiania (now Oslo) after the recognition of Norway as an independent state by foreign powers.

Shortly afterwards he bought the Villa Frognæs, built in 1859 for the banker Thomas Heftye and recognized as one of the finest private residences in the city, to be the British Legation. The Foreign Office had strongly recommended a rental property, but Herbert argued that with the new Norwegian king, Haakon VII, married to a British princess, it was imperative for Britain to establish a first-class legation there, and the British Treasury approved the purchase early in 1906. The Villa Frognæs remains the official residence of the British Ambassador, but new offices have been built behind the house, facing Thomas Heftyes gate, to house the embassy.

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