Julian Pauncefote, 1st Baron Pauncefote

Julian Pauncefote, 1st Baron Pauncefote, GCB, GCMG (September 13, 1828 - May 24, 1902) was a British diplomat. Born in Munich, he was educated at Paris, Geneva, and Marlborough College. Intending to join the British Indian Army, he obtained a commission in the Madras Light Cavalry, but never took up his post, instead being called to the bar in 1852.

In July 1855, Pauncefote became private secretary to Sir William Molesworth, Secretary of State for the Colonies at the time, and served in this capacity until the latter's death in October that same year. Eight years later, he decided to go and practise as a barrister in Hong Kong, and in 1866 became the colony's attorney general. In 1874, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Leeward Islands and knighted, and two years later returned to London as Assistant Under Secretary for the Colonies, assuming the same post at the Foreign Office in 1876.

Having been made KCMG in 1879 and CB the following year, Pauncefote was promoted Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office in 1882. He was appointed first British delegate to the Suez Canal Conference in Paris in 1885, and was rewarded for his services in this respect with appointment as GCMG. In 1888, Pauncefote became KCB, and the following year was sent to the United States as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. In 1901 he negotiated the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty (with U.S. Secretary of State John Hay), nullifying the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850, giving the U.S. the right to create and control a canal across Central America.

Having finally become Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in 1892, Pauncefote the following year became first British Ambassador to the United States. In 1899, he was created Baron Pauncefote, of Preston in the County of Gloucester.

Lord Pauncefote died aged 73 at the British Embassy in Washington, and was buried at East Stoke near Newark-on-Trent. He left no male heirs, and so his peerage became extinct at his death.