Nicholas O'Conor

The Right Honourable
Sir Nicholas O'Conor
GCB, GCMG
Born
Nicholas Roderick O'Conor

(1843-07-03)3 July 1843
Dundermott House, Dundermott Ballymoe, County Roscommon, Ireland
Died19 March 1908(1908-03-19) (aged 64)
Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
OccupationsDiplomat, ambassador
SpouseMinna O'Conor
Children3
RelativesMatila Ghyka (son-in-law)

Sir Nicholas Roderick O'Conor GCB, GCMG, PC (Irish: Nioclás Ruairí Ó Conchobhair Donn; 3 July 1843 – 19 March 1908) was an Anglo-Irish diplomat. When he died, Sir Nicholas was the British ambassador to Turkey.

Early life

O'Conor was born on 3 July 1843 at Dundermot House, in Dundermot, Ballymoe to Patrick O'Conor, a Justice of the peace and later High sheriff, and Jane O'Conor (née French). The youngest of three sons , O'Conor was a member of the cadet branch of the Catholic O'Conor Don family.

Educated at St Stanislaus and Stonyhurst College, O'Conor also studied in Munich and at UCLouvain.

Career

Nicholas Roderick O'Conor. Russia, Saint-Petersburg, 1895-1898

O'Conor entered the diplomatic service in 1866. In his early years, he was attached to the Embassy in Berlin, achieving the rank of Third Secretary in 1870. He served as Secretary at the Hague, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, and Paris. He was trained in the diplomatic service by Richard Lyons, 1st Viscount Lyons, and was a member of the Tory-sympathetic 'Lyons School' of British diplomacy. He was Secretary and Chargé d'Affaires at Peking and Washington, Political Agent and Consul-General in Bulgaria.

Head of Mission

O'Conor's first ministerial appointment was at the British Legation at Peking.

In 1896, O'Conor was made a Privy Counsellor.

O'Conor died in Constantinople following a hemorrhage of the stomach. He was the first British ambassador to die in post in Turkey since Sir Edward Barton, Ambassador of Queen Elizabeth I to Sultan Mehmet III, died in 1598 at the Panagia Apsinthiotissa (now in Cyprus).

Family

He was married to Minna O'Conor daughter of James Robert Hope-Scott, Q.C. (1812–1873) and Lady Victoria Hope-Scott (1840–1870). They had three daughters:

Eldest daughter: Fearga Victoria Mary O'Conor (b. 1892, d. 22 March 1969), married her half first cousin, Rear-Admiral Malcolm Raphael Joseph Constable-Maxwell-Scott, son of Hon. Joseph Constable-Maxwell-Scott and Mary Monica Hope-Scott, on 6 September 1918. She died on 22 March 1969. They had three children:

  1. Sir Michael Fergus Constable-Maxwell-Scott, 13th Bt. of the Constable Maxwell-Scott baronets (b. 23 Jul 1921, d. 29 Nov 1989)
  2. Elizabeth Mary Constable-Maxwell-Scott (b. 28 May 1924, d. 1991)
  3. Ian Malcolm Constable-Maxwell-Scott (b. 18 July 1927, d. 27 November 1993)

Middle daughter: Muriel Margaret Minna O'Conor (b. 1894), married Charles Joseph Nevile, son of Ralph Henry Christopher Nevile, on 21 April 1919.

Youngest daughter: Eileen Winifred Madeleine O'Conor (1897-1963), married, in 1918, at the Brompton Oratory, to Romanian Prince Matyla Ghyka (1881–1965).

Arms

Coat of arms of Nicholas O'Conor
Notes
Granted on 4 September 1890 by Sir John Bernard Burke, Ulster King of Arms.
Crest
On a wreath Argent and Vert out of an Irish crown as in the arms an arm embowed in armour the hand grasping a sword all Proper.
Escutcheon
Argent an oak tree eradicated Proper supported by two lions rampant combatant Sable in chief an ancient Irish crown Or and in base three lizards passant to the sinister barwise Vert.
Motto
(The Valiant Hand Of Ireland)

Notes

  1. ↑ Also cited as Ffrench.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Sir Nicholas O'Conor Dead," New York Times. 20 March 1908.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Riley, Andrew; Beckett, Kathryn R. (March 2004). "The Papers of Sir Nicholas and Lady (Minna) O'Conor". ArchiveSearch. Cambridge: Churchill College, University of Cambridge. Retrieved 22 October 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 Geoghegan, Patrick M. (October 2009). "O'Conor, Sir Nicholas Roderick". Dictionary of Irish Biography (online ed.). Dublin: Royal Irish Academy. doi:10.3318/dib.10.3318/dib.006658.v1. Retrieved 22 October 2026.
  4. 1 2 Sanderson, T. H.; Matthew, H. C. G. (23 September 2004). "O'Conor, Sir Nicholas Roderick (1843–1908), diplomat". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35288. Retrieved 22 October 2026. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  5. ↑ Otte, T. G. (2011). The Foreign Office Mind: The Making of British Foreign Policy: 1865 – 1914. pp. 138–139.
  6. ↑ Otte, T. G. (2011). The Foreign Office Mind: The Making of British Foreign Policy: 1865–1914. pp. 155–156.
  7. ↑ Obituary, Roscommon People (March 1908)
  8. ↑ Korean Mission to the Conference on the Limitation of Armament, Washington, D.C., 1921-1922. (1922). Korea's Appeal, p. 32., p. 32, at Google Books
  9. ↑ "Turkey and the Powers," New York Times. 13 October 1895.
  10. ↑ "Obituary: Death of Sir Nicholas O'Conor". The Times. 20 March 1908. p. 13.
  11. ↑ "Grants and Confirmations of Arms, Vol. H,". National Library of Ireland. p. 218. Retrieved 17 August 2022.