Colville Barclay

Colville Adrian de Rune Barclay (1869–1929) entered the diplomatic service as an attaché in 1894. He advanced through the secretarial grades and became counselor at the Washington embassy in 1913. During the First World War he served under Cecil Spring Rice and Lord Reading and acted as chargé d’affaires when the embassy required temporary leadership. He received the rank of minister plenipotentiary in 1918. ¹

In the final months of the war, Barclay handled exchanges over Allied intervention in Russia. In September 1918 he presented Britain’s proposal to train Russian officers and volunteers willing to support the Allies. Washington accepted the principle but recommended awaiting General Maurice Janin’s arrival in Siberia before proceeding. Barclay also relayed the American position on winter deployments and supplies for Czechoslovak forces to London, then delivered Balfour’s reply. Britain wanted to sustain forces opposing its enemies in European Russia and asked the United States, if unwilling to intervene more actively, to avoid discouraging the other Allies. ^{2, 3}

After the war Barclay became minister to Sweden, serving from 1919 to 1924, and then to Hungary until 1928. His final appointment was as ambassador to Portugal. He died in 1929. His surviving papers include family correspondence, accounts of embassy life, and official material on the 1918 peace negotiations. ¹