- John Jordan (diplomat)
Sir John Newell Jordan GCMG GCIE KCB PC (
5 September 1852 –14 September 1925 ) was a Britishdiplomat .Jordan was born in
Balloo, County Down ,Ireland , the son of a wealthyPresbyterian farmer. He apparently never lost his Irish accent. He was educated at theRoyal Belfast Academical Institution ,Queen's College, Belfast andQueen's College, Cork . In 1876 he joined the Chinese Consular Service as a student interpreter. He held various posts in South China before being appointed Chinese Secretary at the BritishLegation inPeking in 1891. In 1896 he was appointedConsul-General atSeoul ,Korea , becoming "Chargé d'affaires " in 1898 andMinister-Resident in 1901. He remained there until November 1905, being appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in 1904.In 1906 he was appointed HM
Envoy Extraordinary andMinister Plenipotentiary toChina as the successor toSir Ernest Satow and remained in the post until his retirement in 1920. He was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 1909, Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (GCIE) in 1911, and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) in the 1920 Birthday Honours shortly after his retirement. He was also appointed to the Privy Council in 1915, entitling him to the style "The Right Honourable".Jordan, despite his retirement, was a delegate to the
Washington Naval Conference of 1921–1922.References
*Biography, "
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography "
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