Alan Johnstone

Sir Alan Vanden-Bempde-Johnstone (31 August 1858 – 31 July 1932) was a British diplomat. Biography Johnstone was a younger son of Harcourt Vanden-Bempde-Johnstone, 1st Baron Derwent, and Charlotte Mills. He entered Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service in 1879. He became Secretary of the Legation to Copenhagen in 1895, and moved to Germany as Secretary of the Legation (Charges d'Affaires) to Darmstadt and Karlsruhe in 1900. In April 1902 he represented the British King Edward VII during the Golden Jubilee of Frederick I, Grand Duke of Baden. The following year he was appointed Secretary at the Embassy in Vienna. In 1905 he became Ambassador to Denmark and served in that position until 1910. He was made a Grand Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog and a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order. The latter award carried a degree of knighthood. Between 1910 and 1917 he served as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Netherlands and Luxembourg (the post was not upgraded to Ambassador until 1942). He was recalled in February 1917, being close to retirement age and due to some uneasiness in Whitehall that he had not promptly reported a peace feeler by the German Imperial Chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg.