Percy William Doyle CB (1806?[1] – 21 February 1887[2]) was a British diplomat[3] and "a popular member of London society".[4]
Biography edit
The youngest son of General Sir C. W. Doyle, he was first attached to the British Mission in Washington in 1825. He was appointed in 1829 to Madrid.[4] In 1831 in Madrid he visited one of his father's close friends, José de Palafox.[5] Percy Doyle was appointed in 1836 Paid Attaché at Constantinople.[4] He was appointed on 6 December 1842 Secretary of Legation to Mexico[6] and was appointed on 4 January 1843 British Chargé d'Affaires to Mexico[7] but diplomatic relations were broken off later in that year because of an incident involving Antonio López de Santa Anna.[4] In 1847 Doyle was reappointed as British Chargé d'Affaires to Mexico and, embarking aboard HMS Vixen on 13 October 1847, arrived in Mexico in December of that year.[8] From 24 December 1851 to 19 February 1858 Doyle was British Minister Plenipotentiary to Mexico.[6] However, his heath failed him in 1856[9] and in 1858 he retired from the Diplomatic Service on a pension. In March 1858 he was appointed CB (Companion of the Order of the Bath).[4]
Doyle’s collection of Mexican antiquities, made ‘during his residence in that republic’, was sold at auction by Sotheby’s on 3/4 January 1859 for a total of £382. 5s. 6d. .... Doyle appears to have continued to collect, but concentrated on European material. No longer employed, but with a good pension, he seems to have been a ‘man about town’ on the fringes of the royal family, frequenting the theatre, court levées and other society occasions. ... He never married.[4]
References edit
- ^ Boase, Frederic (1892). Modern English Biography: A-H. p. 911. (Several sources give Percy William Doyle's year of birth as 1804 – the year 1804 is definitely wrong because Percy William Doyle's older brother John Sydney Doyle was born in May 1804.)
- ^ Sheppard, Edgar, ed. (1906). George, Duke of Cambridge: a memoir of his private life. Vol. II. 1871–1904. p. 162. (Percy William Doyle died on the morning of 21 February 1887 at the age of 81.)
- ^ "Doyle, Percy William". The National Archives, UK.
- ^ a b c d e f "Doyle, Percy William". The British Museum.
- ^ Rogers, Graciela Iglesias (2013). British Liberators in the Age of Napoleon. p. 133. ISBN 9781441135650.
- ^ a b Parkinson, Jonathan (2018). The Royal Navy, China Station: 1864–1914. p. 91. ISBN 9781788035217.
- ^ Haydn, Joseph (1851). Beatson's Political Index Modernised. The Book of Dignities. Longmans, Brown, Green and Longmans. p. 86.
- ^ Parkinson, Jonathan (2018). The Royal Navy, China Station: 1864–1914. p. 80. ISBN 9781788035217.
- ^ Jones, Raymond A. (1983). The British Diplomatic Service, 1815–1914. Waterloo, Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. p. 20.