(1931) Born Gebre Masqal in the region of
Merhabete, Heruy received his initial education in the traditional manner at local churches until his father died when he was 13. He found a living working as deacon to a big landlord in return for food and clothing until he achieved an appointment as clerk to
Dejazmach Bashah Abboye, the governor of
Selale. Continuing in other clerical positions, he eventually came to the notice of the priests of Saint Raguel on
Mount Entoto, who rekindled his desire for learning. He joined the school attached to that church, where he was taught by the
Ethiopian Orthodox priest
Mamher Walda Giyorgis. According to Bahru Zewde, it was Walda Giyorgis who gave him his name "Heruy" (
Amharic "precious"). Not satisfied with a traditional education, Heruy cast his eyes further afield and learned English at the Swedish mission school in Addis Ababa then picked up some French working with a French veterinary team. Regent
Ras Tefari (later Emperor
Haile Selassie) appointed Heruy in 1916 to serve as administrator of
Addis Ababa. He was a member of Ethiopia's first delegation to the
League of Nations (7 August 1922) and part of the retinue that accompanied the Regent on his tour of Europe in 1924. By the early 1930s, he was promoted to Foreign Minister, and held that office at the beginning of the
Second Italo-Ethiopian War. A diplomatic
mission to Japan in 1931 left him sufficiently impressed to argue for strengthened ties between the two nations. He hoped that, by modeling their military training and modernization
on Japan, they could remain independent. This hope proved illusory and the pro-Ethiopian aspect of the Japanese military fully accepted
alliance with Italy soon after the war with that country began. Heruy joined his Emperor in exile, although he had been one of three members of the council who had voted against Haile Selassie leaving Ethiopia to address the League of Nations in Geneva. Heruy died at
Fairfield House, and was buried in the city of
Bath where the Royal Household lived in exile at Fairfield House, before his body was eventually returned to Ethiopia. Haile Selassie, who described Heruy in his autobiography as "brilliant and strong-willed", included the following words in his elegy at Heruy's funeral: : My colleague and friend Herui, as you depart after successful completion of your service to your country, if I fail to say 'you are great', your works would give the lie to my words. Although the storm generated by wicked people destabilized the world and buffeted you, it did not defeat you. Yet you had to obey the rule of
the Great and Kind Lord. We are all subject to this eventually. == Intellectual importance ==