Carmen Vial Freire Dows

Carmen Vial Dows ( Carmen Vial Freire, formerly Carmen Vial Browne and Carmen Vial de Señoret) (March 28, 1904 – January 1978) was a Chilean diplomat who served as the Ambassador to the Netherlands.

Early life Carmen Viale Freire was born in Santiago, Chile on March 28, 1904, into an aristocratic family and was educated by English and French governesses. She was one of eight children born to Donna Carolina Freire Valdés and Don Pedro Daniel del Carmen Vial Carvallo. Her father was a founder of the La Granja, its first mayor, and deputy for San Fernando from 1906 to 1909. before becoming consul in Boston a year and a half later. While in Boston, she studied Economics and International Trade at Harvard University.

In 1944, she was a Chilean representative to the Bretton Woods Conference in New Hampshire, the gathering of 730 delegates from all the Allied nations to regulate the international monetary and financial order after the conclusion of World War II.

In 1947, during the presidency of Gabriel González Videla, she was appointed the Chilean Ambassador to the Netherlands, serving in The Hague until 1950. She later served in her country's delegation to the Plenary Session of the United Nations.

Personal life Carmen was married three times. Her first marriage was to Chilean architect Luis Browne Fernández (1898–1944), best known for designing the Presidential Palace of Cerro Castillo. Before their divorce, they were the parents of: They divorced in 1971 and he married Nathalie Kuhn in 1974.

Her second marriage was to Octavio Señoret, who was a governor and parliamentarian. He was the son of Manuel Señoret Astaburuaga and María Mercedes Silva. In 1939, he was appointed Chilean Ambassador to the United Kingdom and they moved to London where they lived through World War II and she joined the Red Cross. They remained married until his death in 1941 in Lisbon, Portugal. A son of Alice Olin Dows, her husband owned a large home in Rhinebeck, New York known as Glenburn, and they maintained a home in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. Olin Dows died in 1981.