Born to a distinguished Irish family in Balleskie,
Fife, he was educated at
Trinity College Dublin and joined the
British Army with a commission in the
Royal Tyrone Fusiliers. He served as
sub-lieutenant in the regiment, resigning his commission in 1876. Stronge joined the Diplomatic Service in 1879 and served in British embassies in
Vienna,
Peking,
Constantinople,
Rome and
Athens. He was appointed Consul General for
Hungary in 1903 and in 1904 was promoted to the post of Councillor of Embassy in Constantinople. From 1906 to 1911 he was Minister General and
Consul General in
Colombia. He then served as
Minister Plenipotentiary in
Mexico from 1911 until 1913. As a result of Wilson's machinations, Madero was brought down in
la decena trágica, a bloody ''coup d'état'' that brought
Victoriano Huerta to power. Huerta favoured Stronge and asked
Lord Cowdray to use his influence to have Sir Francis retained as Ambassador to Mexico, but he was moved to a new post that year. From 1913 to 1919 he served as
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at
Santiago, Chile. the key one being negotiating the purchase from Chile of two
battleships, the
Almirante Latorre and the
Admirante Cochrane that were building in
British yards for the Chilean Navy. Both ships were then used by the
Royal Navy in
World War I. On 10 November 1909 he married Maria Elizabeth Fraser of
Castleconnell, daughter of General Sir David Macdowall Fraser. The couple lived at Kilbroney House,
Rostrevor,
County Down, where Stronge died in August 1924. ==See also==