on Lord Hardinge. Hardinge entered the diplomatic service in 1880, and was attached to the embassy in
Constantinople, where he was private secretary to the ambassador
Lord Dufferin. Afterwards he transferred successively to
Berlin,
Washington (where he was acting chargé d′affairs) for a time),
Sofia and Constantinople again. As chargé d′affairs in
Bucharest he was involved in negotiating a treaty and a trade marks convention between the United Kingdom and the
Kingdom of Romania. In 1893 he transferred to Paris, and in 1895 he was appointed a Companion of the
Order of the Bath (CB). He was appointed the first secretary at Tehran in 1896, and the first secretary at
Saint Petersburg in 1898, when he was promoted over the heads of seventeen of his seniors. While in the
Russian Empire, he acted several times as
chargé d'affaires in the ambassador's absence (including in late 1902). In early 1903, he was called back home and appointed Assistant Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs at the
Foreign Office. He was appointed
Ambassador to Russia in March 1904. It has continued to serve a crucial a role in the country's railway network. Hardinge's efforts paid off in 1914 during the
First World War. Improved colonial relationships allowed Britain to deploy nearly all of the British troops in India as well as many native Indian troops to areas outside India. In particular, the
British Indian Army played a significant (though initially mismanaged) role in the
Mesopotamian campaign. In 1916, Hardinge returned to his former post in England as Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office, In 1920, he became ambassador to
France before his retirement in 1922. ==Honours==