William Seeds

Sir William Seeds KCMG (27 June 1882 – 2 November 1973) was a British diplomat who served as ambassador to both the Soviet Union and Brazil. Background and education Seeds was born in Dublin, Ireland, on 27 June 1882, to an Ulster Protestant family. He was the only son of Robert Seeds (1835-1892), of Rutland Square, Dublin, QC, the Queen's Advocate General, and Ada Charlotte, daughter of John Le Mottée, of Le Vanquiédou, a Jurat of Guernsey. After the death of Robert Seeds, his widow married in 1900 Sir William Squire Barker Kaye, CB, KC, Assistant Under-Secretary for Ireland. Seeds was educated at Rugby School and was proficient in French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian. In his late teens he spent two years (1899–1901) in the Russian Empire as a student living with several Russian families, studying the culture and language. He grew to love "the real old Russia like a story or play by Chekhov" On his return from Russia he studied in London to enter the diplomatic service whilst fully enjoying the many entertainments that Edwardian London nightlife had to offer. Diplomatic career Seeds entered His Majesty's Diplomatic Service in 1904 and served in Washington D.C., United States, (1904–07), at the British Legation at Peking, China, (1908–10) and at the British Legation in Athens, Greece (1911–13). He was Chargé d'Affaires and British Consulate General in Lisbon, Portugal, (1913–1919) and Chargé d'Affaires and First Secretary in Berlin, Germany, in 1919. He was appointed Consul General for Bavaria in November 1920 and transferred to Munich. In January 1922, having attended a rally at the Bürgerbräukeller, Seeds wrote one of the first British official reports on the Nazi Party in which he described Adolf Hitler as “a rabid Nationalist and anti-Semite”. In November 1922 Seeds warned: "Herr Hitler has developed into something much more than a scurrilous and rather comic agitator." Seeds was Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Colombia in Bogotá from 1923 to 1925 and Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States of Venezuela in Caracas from 1925 to 1926. In 1926–28 he was Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary and Consul General to the Albanian Republic under the rule of Zog I of Albania whom Seeds reported "is not the pallid tyrant trembling in his palace that some expect him to be".