Lampson entered the
Foreign Office in 1903. He served as Secretary to Garter Mission, Japan, in 1906, as 2nd Secretary at
Tokyo,
Japan, between 1908 and 1910, as 2nd Secretary at
Sofia,
Bulgaria in 1911, as 1st Secretary at
Peking in 1916, as Acting British High Commissioner in
Siberia in 1920 and as British Minister to
China between 1926 and 1933. In 1934 he was appointed
High Commissioner for Egypt and the Sudan. In 1935 following demands from the Egyptian prime minister
Mostafa el-Nahas for a new Anglo-Egyptian treaty, Lampson embarked on the talks. The increasingly aggressive claims by Italy that the entire Mediterranean and Red Sea areas were in the Italian sphere of influence led to Lampson being instructed that because of "the rise of Italy as a Mediterranean and North African Power "that the retention of a British garrison on the Suez Canal and at or in the vicinity of Alexandria is essential". Despite the apparently weaker hand of el-Nahas, the two were about equal as the Foreign Secretary
Anthony Eden advised Lampson: "Failure to negotiate a treaty with Egypt, followed by disturbances in that country, their suppression by British forces and the government of Egypt by His Majesty's Government by force and against the will of the Egyptian people, would be represented throughout the Arab Near East possibly as a sign of British bad faith, certainly as a proof of British imperialism pursued at the expense of a weaker Mohametan country." As a result of the
Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936, to which Lampson was a signatory, Britain loosened its grip on
Egypt and the post title was changed to
Ambassador to Egypt and High Commissioner for the Sudan in 1936. Under the terms of the treaty signed on 26 August 1936, the British retained the Suez canal base; the right to use Alexandria as a naval base for the next eight years along with the right to station air and ground forces to defend the Alexandria base; the right to defend the Egyptian border with the Italian colony of Libya; and the right to use all facilities in Egypt to support British forces in the event of war. Lampson made the concessions but, with respect to all of its essential points, the Anglo-Egyptian treaty was a triumph for British interests. Lampson was helped by the fact that el-Nahas and the rest of the Wafd were also concerned about Italian imperialism. Lampson continued in this office until 1946. As ambassador to Egypt he forced
King Farouk I to change the cabinet to a
Wafdist one through surrounding the king's palace with tanks in the
Abdeen Palace incident of 1942. He was then Special Commissioner in Southeast Asia between 1946 and 1948. He was admitted to the
Privy Council in 1941 and raised to the peerage as
Baron Killearn, of
Killearn in the County of Stirling, on 17 May 1943. He was also awarded the
Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon of Japan and the
Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon of Japan. == Family ==