William Strang, 1st Baron Strang

William Strang, 1st Baron Strang GCB, GCMG, MBE (2 January 1893 – 27 May 1978) was a British diplomat who served as a leading adviser to the British Government from the 1930s to the 1950s and as Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office from 1949 to 1953.

Strang was the eldest son of James Strang, a farmer, and his wife Margaret Steven, daughter of William Steven. He was educated at Palmer's School, University College, London and at the Sorbonne.

Strang was commissioned into the Worcestershire Regiment in 1915 and served in the First World War. He ended the war as a Captain.

In 1919, he joined the Diplomatic Service and served at the British embassy in Belgrade from 1919 to 1922, at the Foreign Office from 1922 to 1930 and at the embassy in Moscow from 1930 to 1933. During his time in Moscow he played an important role in the Metro-Vickers engineers trial, in which six British engineers were accused of spying. He returned to the Foreign Office in 1933, and held office as head of the League of Nations section until 1937 and of the Central Department from 1937 to 1939. From 1939 to 1943 he was assistant under-secretary of state for Europe.

During the 1930s he was an adviser to the government at the major international meetings, and met Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin. He was a tacit opponent of appeasement, but always stayed loyal to the government. He continued as an adviser during and after the Second World War and was present at the major conferences between the Allied leaders. In 1943 Strang was appointed the British representative on the European Advisory Commission, with the rank of ambassador. The commission was set up by the Allies to study the possible post-war political problems in Europe and make recommendation but was dissolved at the Potsdam Conference In June 1945, Strang became political adviser to the Commander-in-Chief of British forces in Germany, Bernard Montgomery.

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