Lancelot Oliphant

Sir Lancelot Oliphant, KCMG, CB (8 October 18812 October 1965) was a British diplomat, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Belgium, Minister-Plenipotentiary to Luxembourg and Director General of the Foreign Office.

His decision that Britain would neither join nor fund a joint partnership with Saudi Arabia to explore for oil, thus forcing the Saudis to cooperate with the United States, left him with the unwanted sobriquet The diplomat who said 'No' to Saudi oil.

Family background Lancelot Oliphant was the youngest of three sons of Arthur Craigie Oliphant and Agnes Mary, daughter of Rear Admiral William Horton and grand daughter of Admiral Joshua Sydney Horton. Sir Lancelot's grandfather was Col. James Oliphant, Chairman of the East India Company, who in turn was the younger brother of Laurence Oliphant, 8th of Condie, Member of Parliament for Perth. Lancelot was married to Christine McRae Sinclair. She had previously been married to Victor Albert Francis Charles Spencer, 1st Viscount Churchill (1864–1934). One of Sir Lancelot's brothers was Rear Admiral Laurence Richard Oliphant, who was married to the Hon. Adelaide Daphne Hermione Willoughby, daughter of the 10th Baron Middleton, who are the grandparents of the present (34th) Chief of the Oliphants.

In March 1936 Oliphant was promoted to deputy under-secretary of state (which lasted until 1939). From 1908 to 1939 Oliphant was linked either directly or indirectly with Persian affairs. Even when he was transferred to the central department, Persia had to be declared part of Central Europe so that he could continue to be involved.

In his capacity of deputy under secretary of state in the run-up to the Second World War, Oliphant was at the centre of the political activity when Lord Halifax and Neville Chamberlain were trying to negotiate a peace agreement with Adolf Hitler.

Lancelot Oliphant was appointed Ambassador to Brussels and Minister-Plenipotentiary to Luxembourg in December 1939. He was interned by the Nazis between 1940 and 1941. He then returned to Britain where he continued his ambassadorial duties to the exiled Governments of Belgium and Luxembourg. Oliphant retired as ambassador in September 1944 and in November of the same year, retired from the Foreign Office.

Oliphant was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1929, a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 1917 Birthday Honours, and promoted to Knight Commander of the Order (KCMG) in the 1931 New Year Honours.

Publications Great Comic Scenes from English Literature (1930) Great Love Scenes from English Literature (1931) An Ambassador in Bonds (1946) Notes on Oliphants of Condie and Gask (1946) Young Peter Quest (1950) English Observed: Common Errors in Written English (1955)