Jan Masaryk
| Jan Masaryk | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia | |
|
In office 21 July 1940 – 10 March 1948 |
|
| President | Edvard Beneš |
| Prime Minister |
Jan Šrámek Zdeněk Fierlinger Klement Gottwald |
| Preceded by | German occupation |
| Succeeded by | Vladimír Clementis |
| Czechoslovakia Ambassador to the United Kingdom | |
|
In office 1925–1938 |
|
| President |
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk Edvard Beneš |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Jan Garrigue Masaryk 14 September 1886 Prague, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | March 10, 1948 (aged 61) Prague, Czechoslovakia |
| Relations | Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (father) |
| Religion | Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren |
| 1In exile 1940-April 1945 | |
Jan Garrigue Masaryk (14 September 1886 – 10 March 1948) was a Czech diplomat and politician and Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia from 1940 to 1948. American journalist John Gunther described Masaryk as "a brave, honest, turbulent, and impulsive man".
Born in Prague, he was a son of professor and politician Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (who became the first President of Czechoslovakia in 1918) and Charlotte Garrigue, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk's American wife. Masaryk was educated in Prague and also in the USA, where he also for a time lived as a drifter and lived on the earnings of his manual labor. He returned home in 1913 and served in the Austro-Hungarian Army during the First World War. He then joined the diplomatic service and became chargé d'affaires to the USA in 1919, a post he held until 1922. In 1925 he was made ambassador to Britain. His father resigned as President in 1935 and died two years later. He was succeeded by Edvard Beneš.
In September 1938 the Sudetenland was occupied by German forces and Masaryk resigned as ambassador in protest, although he remained in London. Other government members including Beneš also resigned. In March 1939 Germany occupied the remaining parts of the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia, and a puppet Slovak state was established in Slovakia. When a Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile was established in Britain in 1940, Masaryk was appointed Foreign Minister. During the war he regularly made broadcasts over the BBC to occupied Czechoslovakia. He had a flat at Westminster Gardens, Marsham Street in London but often stayed at the Czechoslovak Chancellery residence at Wingrave or with President Beneš at Aston Abbotts, both near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. In 1942 Masaryk received an LL.D. from Bates College.
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